Bridging the Disability Rights Funding Gap

DRF is a global participative grant-making organization that supports organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Caribbean countries to advance intersectional disability rights and inclusion. With the Robert Bosch Stiftung as one of its financial supporters, DRF addresses this funding gap by strengthening partnerships with feminist and climate justice funds, encouraging structural change, and advocating for disability inclusion across funding sectors. 

DRF’s approach sets it apart, offering flexible funding that allows grantee organisations to grow sustainably. Grantees are selected by a grant making committee, made up of movement leaders, activists, and advocates. In addition to financial support, DRF also provides technical assistance and capacity-building, such as disability-inclusive budgeting and analysing government spending. 

Advocacy support is central to DRF’s work. In Malawi, for example, it has facilitated engagement between government officials and OPDs. "Whenever we bring our grantees together, we ensure that government representatives are in the room," says Chrissy Zimba, DRF’s programme officer in Malawi. They learn what it means to integrate the needs and perspectives of persons with disabilities into policies, programmes and practices, what the disability movement expects from them, and what their obligations are, she says.

For DRF, real achievement comes when funders expand their commitments to disability rights as an integral part of their mandate rather than a separate issue. There is true potential here for more disability inclusion, by making sure that these resources also reach the disability community. This shift in perspective from disability rights being a separate concern to becoming part of an intersectional issue is crucial across sectors.

Changing donor perspectives requires practical steps, such as integrating disability rights into strategic objectives, governance, and leadership. "There needs to be evidence that the organisation is informed by the communities it serves," Myroslava emphasises.

One of the often-overlooked barriers is the application process itself. Many well-intentioned funders fail to recognise the structural hurdles they create. "Are funding materials available in multiple languages and formats? Is the process accessible to people who use screen readers? Are we unintentionally shutting out organisations from marginalised communities? These are the questions funders must ask,” Myroslava says. The Robert Bosch Stiftung has been reflecting on this in the last year, informed by DRF and its other partners working on disability justice. For a call on economic justice, the Stiftung developed for the first time application guidelines in easy language, in addition to being available in English, German, Spanish and French. 

Peer influence can also drive change. When private foundations share their journeys towards more inclusive grant-making, it sets an example. "It’s one thing for us to say it," Myroslava notes, "but when a funder such as the Robert Bosch Stiftung tells their peers, ‘look, this was not difficult, and it led to better programming and better funding decisions,' that’s when real change happens."

For DRF, supporting disability-led pathways to a just future means ensuring that funding also reaches the most marginalised voices within disability movements. Power imbalances exist within disability movements too, just as they do in broader society, Myroslava says. DRF’s funding approach considers these complexities, ensuring that people with intellectual disabilities and other historically excluded groups are included.
 

Sustained funding is what creates systemic change, Myroslava says. Indonesia's landmark disability-inclusive anti-gender-based violence bill passed in 2022 after years of advocacy by disabled women and feminist allies is an excellent example of DRF’s support. It is Indonesia’s first law to recognise that disabled victims and witnesses of gender-based violence have equal legal capacity in testimony as their non-disabled peers, and the right to accessibility and reasonable accommodations to uphold their rights. DRF’s support also contributed to the drafting of Malawi’s National Inclusive Education Policy. 
 

As DRF approaches its third decade, its strategy remains centred on disability-led advocacy in the Global South. The urgency for flexible and responsive funding models has never been greater in a world facing intersecting crises. Recognising this, in 2025, DRF will be moving away from its focus country orientation and accepting expressions of interest from countries across sub-Saharan Africa, South and South East Asia and the Pacific Island countries. It will prioritise cross-cutting issues such as gender justice, inclusive climate justice, youth rights, economic justice, Indigenous rights, LGBTQI+ rights, and racial justice. 

Its five-year strategic plan focuses on four key pillars – from strengthening disability movements and collective learning to creating inclusive spaces and strengthening organization. In doing so, DRF is not only focusing on financial support, but also on exchange and the active participation of all those involved.