Disability inclusion represents good value for money

Melmar Articulo who has a physical disability sits on the floor building something.

CBM has co-authored a new paper showing that excluding people from disabilities from international development activities is not only unfair, it also represents poor value for money.

“Leaving no one behind: The value for money of disability-inclusive development”, published today by NGO network Bond,also provides practical guidance on how to assess the value for money of programmes in an inclusive way.

Kirsty Smith, CBM UK’s CEO said, “Value for money is about achieving the best possible impact with the resources that are available. Achieving value for money is important for everyone working in international development. There is a huge need in the countries where CBM works and so we must make sure that we use our limited resources in the best way possible. This doesn’t mean that we must select the cheapest or easiest options. It is vital to seek the hardest to reach, those who are most marginalised, even if this costs more.”

In the attempt to prove that interventions are good value for money – there has been a tendency to move towards selecting interventions which cost less and reach more people. This means that people with disabilities, who are often the poorest and most excluded, and may cost more to reach are being left behind.

Hannah Loryman CBM’s Senior Policy Officer who co-authored the paper said, “We saw that the way donors and other people working in the sector were measuring and interpreting value for money was excluding people with disabilities and other people who may be harder to reach. This paper is a step towards solving that problem. We make the case that including people with disabilities isn’t just the right thing to do; it is also the smart thing to do. There are huge positive social and economic benefits from including people with disabilities.”

The paper provides clear advice and guidance for those working in the sector to make sure that they interpret value for money in an inclusive way.

The paper is available to view here: https://www.bond.org.uk/resources/leaving-no-one-behind-0 (open link in new tab).

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