We are collaborative
We believe we can achieve more by working together.
We are courageous
We are bold and agile, with the courage to innovate.
We are accountable
We are accountable to the children we work with.
Our Four Corners
We have identified four corners that underpin our organization and the work we do. We know that these cross-cutting areas will fundamentally strengthen and accelerate our ability to improve the lives of children with disabilities, while ensuring that our approach is equitable and does no harm.
Meaningful engagement
Meaningful engagement is an approach that puts people with disabilities at the front and center of all decision making and delivery. It asserts that adults, young people and children with disabilities know best what works for them, and by listening to their solutions we can ensure longer-lasting and more meaningful change.
Child-centred
A child-centred approach focuses on the needs and rights of children. In practice, this means understanding global problems through the viewpoint of children and designing interventions that primarily respond to their specific experiences and uphold their rights. For us, a child-centred approach requires us to educate, equip, and enable children to make decisions about their lives and to become their own agents change.
Racial equality
Racial equity is the intentional and continual process of eliminating racial disparities in our workplace and through all our work. We believe that we are ultimately accountable to the communities where we work, and to be truly accountable, we must ensure we are an antiracist organization. This requires us to confront institutional racism and old colonial structures, both within our organization and in relation to the work that we do. We also believe it means shifting power to the organizations we work with, putting our members in meaningful decision making positions and listening to new and different ways of working.
Gender sensitivity
Gender sensitivity is the ability to acknowledge existing gender differences and understand the inequalities that exist. Disability and gender often intersect to compound the discrimination girls with disabilities experience, and adopting a gender sensitive lens allows us to design effective interventions that will address these specific barriers.
For more information about our four corners and how we will implement each through our programs and our organization, read our new strategy at the bottom of this page.
Response to the climate emergency
Climate change is taking the biggest toll on the world’s most marginalized. This is not an accident. The failure of governments and international agencies to effectively tackle structural inequalities has left many people from low-income countries at risk of the most significant effects of climate change. We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint and taking an environmentally responsible and sustainable approach to our work. We commit to doing this in three main ways:
Fly less
Due to the nature of our work, our carbon footprint is relatively high compared to the size of the organization. This is due to regular long-haul flights between our operational offices and Africa. We are committed to reducing this footprint and the number of flights we make over the next strategic period. We are taking our first steps toward this by employing staff in the places where we work, so we can limit the distances needed to travel and reduce our dependence on long-haul flights. We will only fly internationally when necessary and continue to embrace technology to ensure strong and consistent communication with our members.
Be conscious
We will deliver new projects that focus on climate justice for children with disabilities. We will integrate climate resilience for children with disabilities in all our programs, and we will include climate change risks and mitigations for children with disabilities in our planning.
Amplify
We will amplify the voices of children and young people with disabilities in global conversations by providing information and resources in accessible, child-friendly formats, that enable children with disabilities to participate in climate action. We will stand up for the rights for children with disabilities to be part of the global conversation on the climate crisis. And we will coordinate and fund child and youth-led campaigns on inclusive climate justice.
