What we do

The Missing Billion Initiative is a catalyst for disability-inclusive health systems.

We envision a world in which all 1.3 billion people with disabilities can live a healthy and independent life. To reach his goal, we work to transform health systems so everyone is ensured access to health and better health outcomes. Our approach is to focus on system-level change and to catalyze others to adopt our solutions. By targeting underlying root causes, we ensure our solutions are sustainable and create impact. By mobilizing other actors in the global health community at large, we ensure change at scale.

We have three strategies to our work.

Today, tools and guidance to understand where improvements are needed in a given health system are lacking. We work towards filling this gap by building solutions for Ministries of Health and other national health providers become leaders of change. All tools build on the Missing Billion inclusive health systems framework. The framework illustrates how systemic factors influence service delivery, and result in outputs and outcomes relevant to people with disabilities.

We developed a System Level Assessment, a tool to assess how disability-inclusive health systems are (deployed in 6 countries already, including Abu Dhabi, Nigeria, Brazil and Mozambique). The tool helps policymakers understand issues across the entire health system, and identifies action entry points based on the assessment results. The toolkit development was further guided by an advisory board consisting of Ministry of Health representatives and global health funders.

Our other tools offer immediate solutions to initiate transformations:

• Facility Level Assessment

• Healthcare Worker Training Survey

• MBI/LSHTM - Healthcare Worker Training

On-going work includes:  

• Application of our tools in 5 countries and support with implementation of prioritized interventions

• Long-term partnerships with governments to transform health services building on an assessment

• Development of a toolkit to empower community health workers (CHWs) to delivery their services to persons with disabilities

• Development of an AI chatbot application for health worker training and on-the-job support

We develop data and insights to inform global health investments. Both the 2019 and 2022 Missing Billion reports lay out the overall priority areas to address the Missing Billion issue. We visualized evidence in a data dashboard, which compares data and performance of countries.

We publish peer-reviewed articles in world’s leading journals like the Lancet Public Health. In addition, we develop bespoke information and provide advice for specific stakeholders to situate the issue and solutions in specific contexts (e.g. worked with the World Bank to develop an internal guidance on disability-inclusive health investments, developed the WHO Europe policy brief on disability-inclusive health systems, hold brown bags and information sessions with global health funders). 

On-going work includes:

• Report on care pathways for persons with disabilities in partnership with the McKinsey Health Institute. Have a look at the report teaser here.

• Development of a Missing Billion report on the intersectional of health gender and disability.

• Development of a Missing Billion report on “HIV” – building on our work highlighting the link between HIV and disabilities, and the need to make HIV disability-inclusive, the report will lay out best practices and specific interventions that funders can focus on

• Gather good practice examples of disability inclusion in health in our Good Practice Compendium

1.3 billion people won't be reached by one organization alone. To create a global movement for disability inclusion in health, we mobilize stakeholders through a novel Inclusive Health Collective, events and the Missing Billion fellowship.

• Inclusive Health Collective: we are building a collaborative community of health stakeholders. We rallied a novel collaborative group with more than 20 highly influential players (e.g. The Global Fund, World Bank) who meet regularly to collaborate. The collective works to identify and execute collective action on in-country solutions for inclusive health and mainstreaming financing for disability inclusion in health.  If you are interested in joining the collective, please reach out to us. 

• Events: Together with these partners, we work to bring the topic of disability at key global health events (e.g. World Health Summit) to raise awareness and action. We facilitate the participation of leaders and experts with disabilities in these events. 

• Missing Billion fellowship: we provide opportunities for early stage researchers and junior professionals to learn about system change and global movement building for disability inclusive health. Most of the MBI fellows have lived experience of disability.