The Missing Billion Initiative is a catalyst for disability-inclusive health systems.

We envision a world in which all 1.3 billion people with disabilities can live a healthy and independent life. To reach his goal, we work to transform health systems so everyone is ensured access to health and better health outcomes. Only be prioritising people with disabilities can we truly achieve SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and Universal Health Coverage.

Through our four pillars of work, we deliver tools, solutions and data, and provide a platform to mobilise change in the sector.

Today, little data is available on access to healthcare of people with disabilities in most countries. This gap means that tools and guidance to assess where improvements are needed are lacking.

The Missing Billion Initiative is working towards filling this gap by developing practical tools for policy makers. All tools build on the Missing Billion inclusive health systems framework. The framework illustrates how systemic factors influence service delivery, and result in outputs and outcomes relevant to people with disabilities.

Using these categories, we are have developed a toolkit, starting with an assessment module.

Specifically, The Missing Billion initiative has already:

• Developed a toolkit – assessment module, which has been piloted in Brazil, Maldives, and Zimbabwe. The toolkit development was further guided by an advisory board consisting of Ministry of Health representatives and global health funders

• Established a data dashboard, which compares data and performance of countries

• Developed the WHO Europe policy brief on disability-inclusive health systems

On-going work includes:  

• Application of the toolkit to further countries and publication of data

• Long-term partnerships with governments to transform health services building on an assessment

The Missing Billion Initiative is developing data and insights to inform global health investments. Both the 2019 and 2022 Missing Billion reports lay out the overall priority areas to address the Missing Billion issue. In addition, we develop bespoke information and provide advice for specific stakeholders to situate the issue and solutions in specific contexts.

Specifically, The Missing Billion initiative has already:

• Worked with the World Bank to develop an internal guidance on disability-inclusive health investments

• Held numerous brown bags and information sessions with global health funders, e.g. Pepfar, Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria

• Published in the Lancet on access to HIV/AIDS services for people with disabilities, demonstrating that continuing to exclude this group from HIV/AIDS services means that ultimately HIV goals may not be met

On-going work includes:

• Development and launch of a Missing Billion report on “gender” – highlighting the health and health access barriers of women with disabilities in particular

• Development and launch of a Missing Billion report on “HIV” – building on our work highlighting the link between HIV and disabilities, and the need to make HIV disability-inclusive, the report will lay out best practices and specific interventions that funders can focus on

The Missing Billion Initiative focuses on applying human-centred design to all innovation initiatives to ensure participation, representation of people living with disabilities throughout discovery, co-creation, testing and implementation of activities.

We focus the solution development on issues that arise from our analysis of barriers and where we find not enough good practice and innovation through our good practice compendium.

Specifically, we are currently working on two projects:

• Community Health Workers (CHWs): developing a toolkit to empower CHWs to delivery their services to persons with disabilities

• Inclusive Primary Care Clinics: developing a blue-print for fully inclusive primary care clinics

The Missing Billion Initiative will continue to work with all stakeholders on further highlighting the need for addressing existing barriers with the key health organisations.

Please reach out, if you would like to collaborate with us on this advocacy agenda and help shape it.