Disability inclusion finance

People with disabilities are among the most marginalised groups in Pacific Island countries, facing persistent stigma, discrimination, and economic exclusion. They experience lower rates of school attendance and labour force participation, and are more likely to report negative encounters with health systems.¹ Women with disabilities face particularly severe barriers, including higher rates of physical and sexual violence, forced treatments, and earlier childbearing than both women without disabilities and men with disabilities.²

Trends

The Pacific Disability Forum estimates that 1.7 million people across the region live with a disability.³ This number is rising, driven by demographic ageing and the growing prevalence of non-communicable diseases. In response, disability-specific government programs have emerged across the region. Since 2015, six countries — Fiji, Kiribati, Palau, Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu — have introduced government-funded disability benefit schemes, providing regular, predictable payments to eligible individuals.⁴ Yet major gaps remain. Countries such as Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu still lack substantive government support for persons with disabilities.

Between 2008 and 2017, the Pacific received an annual average of just $13 million for “significant” tagged disability projects and $6 million for “principal” projects. Since 2018, a handful of development partners have increased efforts to finance disability inclusion and mainstream it into development activities. As a result, average annual spending jumped to $136 million and $24 million respectively. As with climate and gender projects, the pandemic period drove a substantial increase in “significant” marked disability financing, with mainstreamed efforts built into budget support programming. However, unlike support for other cross-cutting issues, this has been more durable (Figure 1).

Key partners

Donors have increasingly integrated disability inclusion into larger development initiatives. Australia is the biggest provider of disability-related aid in the region, having spent $2.1 billion on “significant” disability inclusion projects between 2008 and 2024 and $132 million on “principal” projects over the same period (Figure 2). Japan ranks second at $470 million, though almost all of this has come through mainstreaming in a handful of budget support loans. New Zealand is the region’s second-largest funder of “principal” disability projects, having spent $52 million since 2008. Viewed in full, the data indicates that, while there has been some increased focus on disability financing, it remains a more niche policy goal than climate and gender-related funding.