On March 21, 2025, our Founder & Executive Director, Nidhi Goyal, delivered a keynote address at a session, co-hosted by Women in Global Health and the Missing Billion Initiative, as part of the CSW 69 and the Beijing +30 review. This panel, “Breaking Barriers: Women with Disabilities in Global Health Leadership and Policy,” was a virtual side event, attended by over 200 participants.
In her address, Nidhi focused on the intersection of gender, disability, health, and leadership within global policy frameworks. She spoke on the urgent need to center women with disabilities in global health leadership and policymaking. She highlighted that women with disabilities remain among the most marginalised populations globally, facing the impacts of gender and disability-based discrimination, while being systematically excluded from education, employment, leadership, and decision-making spaces.
She emphasised that this exclusion is not only a health issue, but a human rights issue and a leadership gap. The lived experience of women with disabilities must be recognised as expertise that strengthens health systems through intersectional and systems-level insights.
Nidhi drew attention to disparities in sexual and reproductive health, mental health services, and safety, including higher unmet needs, limited access to abortion, and significantly increased risks of violence. Citing global evidence, she pointed out that current health systems are failing women with disabilities.
She concluded by stressing that health equity cannot be achieved unless gender and disability are fully integrated across the global health agenda, with women with disabilities meaningfully included as leaders and decision-makers.