ABOUT US
Our mission
CIP supports international and national stakeholders to ensure that policies, practices and programs foster full and effective inclusion of disadvantaged groups, in particular for persons with disabilities, by the full realization of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and other human rights frameworks and development agendas through policy analysis, research, training, and strategic thinking.
Our approach
Our goal is to contribute to building the capacity for inclusive policy through knowledge development and dissemination, technical assistance, and by facilitating dialogue and links between various stakeholders.
We work collaboratively in partnership with national and international non-governmental organizations.
Who we are
We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization registered in Washington, DC, United States.
Daniel
Mont
About
has extensive experience in the area of disability and inclusive development in research, operations, and capacity building.
Having worked for many years with the World Bank but also with a wide range of other international development agencies, governments, academics, and civil society organizations. (Based in the US)
Alberto
Vásquez
About
is a Peruvian human rights lawyer and disability rights advocate.
In Peru, he has been actively involved in the drafting, advocacy and monitoring of laws and policies relating to persons with disabilities. He is the president of the NGO Society and Disability – SODIS and member of the Latin American Network of Psychosocial Diversity. He was formerly the research coordinator for the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. (Based in Switzerland)
Meenakshi Balasubramanian
About
is a long-time disability rights activist who contributed to numerous campaigns to improve laws and policies at the states and Union level in India. Passionate about CRPD compliant policy analysis, she has reviewed Union and States budget from a disability perspective every year since 2012 for the People Budget initiative led by CBGA. (Based in India)
Nanette Goodman
About
is the Research Director of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University. She is based in the US and has over 20 years of experience conducting quantitative and qualitative research on disability policy issues in the U.S. and in low-and middle-income countries. (Based in the US)
Jennifer Madans
About
has contributed to a wide
body of written work addressing all aspects of disability data collection which is used
internationally.
She served as the head of the Secretariat of the Washington Group on Disability Statistics from its inception until the present, and has conducted numerous training sessions, provided extensive technical
assistance, and has been an invited to speak at a range of events on the collection and analysis of
disability data at the country, regional and international level. (Based in the US)
Zachary Morris
About
is an Assistant Professor at the Stony Brook School of Social Welfare where he conducts policy relevant research on the financial and social inclusion of people with disabilities worldwide. (Based in the US)
Maria Pereira
About
is an Ecuadorian data analyst and international development practitioner focused on social protection and community supports programs for people with disabilities. She has worked with several international development and civil society organizations both as a researcher and a disability rights advocate. She holds a Master of International Development Policy from the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Barnard College, Columbia University. (Based in the US)
Ilene Zeitzer
About
has over 40 years of experience in comparative disability policy.
In 2002, she took early retirement and founded Disability Policy Solutions (DPS) where
the bulk of her work in recent years has focused on disability assessment and
employment promotion issues for persons with disabilities. (Based in Brazil)
Mónica Pinilla-Roncancio
About
is an assistant professor at Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia and a Research Associate at Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at Oxford University. She has experience working on disability, poverty and social protection in LMICs. She has worked with countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. (Based in Colombia)
Heather Holmes
About
is a Research Administrator with a DC-based university where her focus is ending violence against women. With over 20 years of professional experience, Heather brings a variety of expertise to CIP including budget development and long-range planning, finance and operations, personnel management, process/systems improvement strategies, and pre/post award administration. (Based in the US)
Polly Meeks
About
has 15 years’ experience in public finance and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. She has led numerous research projects, for multilateral organisations, research institutes, government/parliamentary bodies, and civil society organisations. (Based in the UK)
Samaneh Shabani
is a young international law and human rights’ law
scholar from Iran. She has her PhD in public international law from
University of Tehran.
Her main areas of focus are the rights of people with
disabilities, gender and disability, human rights, and justice and
peace. (Based in Belgium)
Francisca Valdebenito-Acosta
has developed analyses of public policies related to disability in Chile.
As director of studies at Symbolon, she has conducted research on the housing, health and subjective well-being gaps of people with disabilities for government and academia. (Based in Chile)
Agus Hasan Hidayat
is a youth disability rights activist. He works with youth with psycho-social disabilities through peer support group programs, social media campaigns, disability rights advocacy, and awareness campaigns at different events to raise issues on persons with psycho-social disabilities to the -public. (Based in Indonesia)
President
About
Social justice activist and public policy practitioner, with over a decade’s experience working across government and civil society. He has focused extensively on disability inclusion, and has advised the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on disability and other inclusion issues. (Based in Australia)
Treasurer
About
Over 45 years lived experience with disability and working with one of the largest NGOs in India providing educational services for disabled children and supporting mainstream educational institutions enroll and retain disabled students. He is a development economist with professional qualifications in finance and management, accounting and jurisprudenc. (Based in India and the UK).
Secretary
About
Independent consultant specializing in participatory grantmaking and disability rights and inclusion. She served as the Founding Executive Director of the Disability Rights Fund (DRF) and Disability Rights Advocacy Fund (DRAF), participatory grantmakers that helped pioneer the inclusion of people with lived experience in global philanthropic practice. (Based in the US)
Member
About
A tireless advocate for rights of people with disabilities (PWDs), particularly those impacted by poverty, and the creation of a barrier-free society in Vietnam. Among her many contributions, Lan Anh was a strong advocate behind Vietnam’s successful ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2014. (Based in Vietnam)
“The members of the board of directors are volunteers. While the board of directors provide overall guidance on the work of CIP, the opinions and views expressed in CIP technical assistance or website content are those of their authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the board of directors members.”
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