Global Inclusive Health 

HI champions global inclusive health by strengthening equitable, resilient, and sustainable health systems that ensure access to quality care for all.

Our approach

HI is a global leader on inclusive health, working to ensure no one is left behind, especially persons with disabilities.

Through an approach grounded in human rights, we advocate for quality, person-centred services that are accessible to those facing different types of discrimination. We combine direct programming with technical assistance to strengthen inclusive health systems, humanitarian coordination, and global policy frameworks at international, regional and national levels. Through community-based solutions, inclusive services, and partnerships with local organisations, we create environments where everyone can access the health care they need and live with dignity.

Why does health equity matter?

Today, 1.3 billion persons with disabilities continue to experience lower quality services or find the health and care they need is inaccessible and unaffordable.

According to the WHO’s Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities (2022), unfair, unjust and avoidable structural conditions affect persons with disabilities disproportionately and result in poorer health outcomes.

The right to health of persons with disabilities is consistently violated, and they often encounter barriers to accessing health services, including physical, communication, attitudinal and institutional barriers.

Exclusion from health services directly leads to worse health outcomes. Per year, more than twice the number of persons with disabilities die than those without disabilities. They are three times more likely to be denied healthcare and four times more likely to be treated badly when accessing services.

Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3  and universal health coverage requires addressing these inequities through people-centred, community-based health systems  – things that benefit everyone.

Our principles to promote health equity

• We use health equity as our key framework, ensuring everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as they can be, and realise their right to health.
• We believe health promotion and prevention are core to public health.   
• We use a person-centred approach to guide inclusive, rights-based health programmes. 
• We adopt a life-cycle approach to support access to the health information and services that people need across key stages of life.
• We strengthen health systems to enable provision of equitable, resilient, low-carbon health services and promote quality care and universal health coverage.
• We support the ‘health in all policies’ approach, meaning we look at how decisions in any sector can affect people’s health and equity.
• We recognise that the planet's health and human health are intrinsically interlinked, and work to promote climate-sensitive approaches across our activities.

Who do we work with?

• Governments: We work with governments to ensure health policies, planning, and resources are equitable and aligned with global commitments to health equity, universal health coverage, and the rights of persons with disabilities.
• Health providers: We collaborate with health service providers to provide quality, inclusive, person-centred care that is accessible and affordable to all.
• Organisations of Persons with Disabilities and civil society: We build partnerships with civil society organisations and organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) to advocate for their right to health and actively shape inclusive health systems.
• Communities and families: We support communities and families to manage community-based projects and engage with solutions to barriers faced by people with disabilities in accessing healthcare.

Where we work

The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown on this map are not warranted to be error free nor do they necessarily imply official endorsement or acceptance by HI.

Our projects

Making healthcare inclusive

HI strengthens health systems to ensure that persons with disabilities can access quality, affordable, and respectful care.

We focus on removing the barriers to healthcare, and we work to embed disability inclusion in policies, planning, services, workforce development, health information and data collection. By combining system-wide reforms with improvements in service delivery, alongside community engagement and empowerment, we help build health services that are more inclusive, resilient, and responsive to the diverse needs of all individuals and communities.  

Our activities include:

• Supporting governments to integrate disability inclusion into health policies, planning, and service delivery, including through the WHO Disability Health Equity Guide for Action.
• Strengthening the leadership and meaningful participation of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities in advocacy on the right to health, such as through our collaboration with Down Syndrome International.
• Engaging in global initiatives that advance health equity, including as a founding member of the WHO Disability Health Equity Initiative .
• Delivering programmes and training packages to strengthen health systems and health service providers, such as our work in Sierra Leone.

Providing mental health and psychosocial support

HI promotes inclusive, community and rights-based mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) that strengthens well-being, autonomy, and participation for all, including persons with disabilities and their caregivers. 

Our work is aligned with global WHO and international humanitarian standards for mental health and psychosocial support, with a focus on accessible, non-specialised forms of support that can be integrated into everyday services and community systems.

A central part of our approach is inclusive health system strengthening, where we work with ministries of health, national partners, OPDs, and community actors to develop workforce capacity, improve quality of care, strengthen governance, and embed MHPSS within national health policies and essential services. This long-term system strengthening complements our direct implementation and ensures sustainability beyond projects.

Our approach is interdisciplinary, linking MHPSS with rehabilitation, health, protection, education, armed-violence reduction, disaster risk reduction, and economic inclusion. By doing so, HI ensures that stronger, more sustainable support is provided throughout people’s lives, and that mental health is embedded within systems of care.

HI currently implements MHPSS activities in 34 countries across humanitarian, protracted-crisis, and development settings, through 77 projects.

HI implements MHPSS through two main modalities, indirect and direct intervention. The indirect approach focuses on building the capacities of national and local partners and contributing to inclusive health system strengthening. The direct approach is used mostly in emergencies, where HI deploys its own MHPSS teams to deliver support on the ground. 

While HI continues to provide direct services when needed, we increasingly prioritise supporting local actors to lead and sustain MHPSS services over time.

Our activities span promotion, prevention, focused MHPSS, and referral, including:

• Awareness-raising, psychoeducation, and community engagement.
• Peer-to-peer groups, self-help activities, and community mobilisation.
• Individual and group counselling for people experiencing psychological distress.
• Safe identification and referral to specialised mental health services.
• Capacity building for teachers, health workers, social workers, community volunteers, and OPDs staff.

Promoting equitable access to non-communicable disease prevention and treatment

Non-communicable diseases like heart disease, stroke, and diabetes cause 71% of global deaths each year, and people with disabilities are three times more likely to develop such conditions.

We raise awareness, improve access to care, and through inclusive programmes, help communities prevent and manage these health conditions, especially in low-resource settings.

Highlighting planetary health and climate-resilient prevention and care 

We recognise that human health depends on a healthy planet. Climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss disproportionally impact persons with disabilities, women, youth and older adults  with health conditions.

HI has adopted the Planetary Health approach, envisioning joint benefits for health and climate. This includes promoting nature-based solutions, climate resilient  health facilities, and climate-smart  health workers and future-proofed services to ensure everyone’s right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.

Key actions

Discover two key projects and the results of a global consultation on health equity for people with intellectual disabilities.