About the Paper
Published as an advanced unedited discussion paper in March 2023, the report was written by Alberto Vásquez Encalada, Shivani Gupta, Alexandre Cote, Sav Tanhchareun, Ahmed Ghanem, María Antonella Pereira, and Louisa Lippi, for UNICEF and ILO under the UNPRPD’s Inclusive Social Protection project.
People with disabilities have support needs that remain unmet. This sits at the crux of this paper on the disability support gap, produced by the Center for Inclusive Policy (CIP) for UNICEF and ILO under the UN Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD).
What Counts as Community Support?
The paper defines it broadly: the services, products, organisations, and people, family, peers, NGOs, local authorities, that help persons with disabilities carry out daily activities and participate in their communities. That spans six domains: communication, decision-making, mobility, daily life assistance, housing, and family support, each tied to specific CRPD articles.
How Big Is the Gap in Practice?
Even though data is limited in many contexts, it’s still a stark picture. For instance, in Chile, over 40% of persons with disabilities need some form of human support, and over 90% of the support they receive is unpaid, provided almost entirely by family, mostly women. On the other side of the world in Afghanistan, over 80% of persons with disabilities report having no one to assist them with daily activities at all. If the situation in Chile, Aghanistan, and other countries discussed in the paper is any indication, then the disability support gap is quite large.
Why Does This Gap Exist?
The paper traces it to a shift that hasn’t fully happened yet. The CRPD moved disability policy away from institutional and medical models toward community-based, rights-based support, but most low- and middle-income countries never built the service infrastructure that shift requires. Where support exists at all, it’s overwhelmingly informal and unpaid, which shows up as lost income, dropped-out education, and caregiver burnout for the family members, again mostly women and girls, who fill the gap.
What Does Support Look Like Across a Life?
Needs shift substantially by age. Children with disabilities need early intervention and family guidance to encourage schooling and reduce risk of institutionalization. Youth need support transitioning into higher education, work, and independent living. Working-age adults need job coaching and in-home support to sustain employment and family life. Older persons with disabilities, a rapidly growing group as populations age, need support that’s often invisible because their needs don’t get framed as disability-related at all.
What Would Actually Close the Gap?
CIP’s team lays out four interlocking components. On policy: legally recognize community support as part of the right to live independently, backed by real data on support needs rather than assumptions. On participation: involve persons with disabilities directly in designing and monitoring the systems meant to serve them. On service delivery: combine community resource mobilization, workforce development, and cautious public-private partnerships. On financing: increase investment in policies and programs that promote independent living.
