Leonard Cheshire believes in a fair and inclusive world, where everyone can live as they choose. In order to reach this goal, we deliver a range of programs that have an impact on individuals, the public, organizations, and at national and global levels.

We exist to improve the life chances of persons with disabilities and play our part in supporting individuals to live, learn, and work as independently as they choose, whatever their ability. With over 70 years’ experience of supporting persons with disabilities across the globe, we are a leading voice on inclusive development. Our international operation works out of four regional hubs in Kenya, Zambia, Thailand, and India.

Priorities as a partner of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data

Leonard Cheshire is working to improve the quality and increase the availability of disability disaggregated data on the SDGs, with the aim of using this data to contribute to ensuring that no-one is left behind. This is particularly important for the 1 billion people with disabilities worldwide who are among those most at risk of being left behind.

One of our key contributions to the data revolution for sustainable development data and the sustainable development goals is our disability data portal which captures disability data from more than 40 countries and which is currently undergoing redevelopment so that it aligns more closely with the SDGs.

The data we aim to capture includes both quantitative data from a range of sources including national census data and demographic and health surveys, as well as qualitative, citizen-generated data on the lived experiences of people with disabilities through projects we support. These include our ‘2030 and Counting’ project through which young people with disabilities trained as citizen reporters have identified priority actions for governments to take on SDGs 3, 4, 8, and 10, and in addition, the Innovation to Inclusion program, which supports Disabled People’s Organizations to collect data to monitor implementation of SDGs 1, 2, 6, and 8 in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

In addition to supporting improved quality and increased access to data on disability, Leonard Cheshire is also contributing to the global debate on how to capture data on disability using evidence from our long-term experience in the field of disability data research and policy.

This involves increasing awareness of the Washington Group Questions on disability; producing policy reports and academic articles exploring the benefits and limitations of the Washington Group Short Set of Questions on disability and other methodologies for capturing disability data; producing collaborative academic research with local disabled people’s organizations such as the ‘Bridging the Gap’ project; and working in partnership with international NGOs to improve their ability to capture data on disability.

Recognizing that disability data is often difficult to capture consistently at a national level, Leonard Cheshire is very keen to support National Statistical Offices, such as the UK’s Office for National Statistics, to develop and implement the most effective data collection techniques to capture information on the extent to which people with disabilities are being included in efforts to achieve the SDGs.

We believe we are well placed to do this, with strong experience of gathering data on people with disabilities in both our international and our UK program work and we are very keen to work with others to improve the inclusion of disability data in the data revolution for sustainable development data and the SDGs.