• Children with Disabilities

Africa has one of the largest populations of children with disabilities in the world. Disability on the continent has been fuelled by the affects of widespread armed conflict, including as result of uncleared mines, by poverty and a lack of adequate healthcare services. Many African children are born with some form of disability that could be have been prevented by pre and postnatal healthcare services. Children with disabilities in Africa comprise one of the most neglected groups, both socially and economically.

The majority of these children and their families face enormous economic, political, and social barriers that have adverse impacts on their physical, social and intellectual development and wellbeing. As a consequence, the strengths and abilities of children with disabilities are invisible, their potential is consistently underestimated, and inadequate resources are allocated to social services for meaningful inclusion of children with disabilities. Gaps in research evidence have hampered effective policy and legislative responses.

As a pro-child policy catalyst, ACPF is at the forefront of efforts to support governments compare law, policy and programmatic experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practices, to bring about desired outcomes for children with disabilities. This synthesis report, Reasons for Hope: Good Practices Relating to Children with Disabilities from Kenya, Liberia and Mozambique, presents practices that have been proven to work in relation to creating inclusive laws, policies, programme and services. We present this report to the promote replication of these good practices in similar socioeconomic context across the continent.