Women and girls with disabilities face a double burden. They are excluded because of their disability. They are also excluded because of their gender. Together, those two layers of discrimination shut them out of decisions that affect their lives — in their homes, their communities, and the policy spaces where change happens.

SA-DGMP works to change that. The programme promotes the inclusion of women and girls with disabilities in decision-making, social protection, and development. It recognises that disability and gender cannot be treated as separate issues. Any programme that addresses disability without addressing gender will still leave women and girls behind.

The work under SA-DGMP spans advocacy, community engagement, and targeted funding proposals. Key activities have included:

• A concept note developed with BOFOD and submitted to AIDS and Rights for Southern Africa (ARASA) on protecting and promoting the sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) of adolescent girls and young women with disabilities in Mochudi, Botswana — particularly during COVID-19. The initiative sought to build awareness, open community dialogues, and create an environment where young women with disabilities can access services without fear or stigma.
• A proposal submitted to the African Development Bank, in partnership with BOFOD and LNFOD, to promote the inclusion and empowerment of women with disabilities in entrepreneurship in Botswana and Lesotho — linked to the SDG commitment on gender equality.
• A proposal submitted to the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives on women’s economic empowerment, focused on the daily vulnerabilities of women with disabilities and the added impact of COVID-19 on their lives and livelihoods.
• A proposal to the Gupta Family Foundation targeting young women and women with disabilities in Kgatleng District, Botswana, to increase their economic participation through enterprise training, access to tools and materials, and documented learning.

Across these initiatives, SA-DGMP reflects a consistent position: that women and girls with disabilities must not be an afterthought in development programming. They must be at the centre — as decision-makers, as beneficiaries, and as voices that shape what inclusion looks like in practice.

The COVID-19 research conducted by SAFOD reinforced how urgent this is. The pandemic deepened existing inequalities for persons with disabilities. For women and girls, the impact was sharper still — including increased exposure to gender-based violence, further exclusion from health services, and loss of economic ground that was already hard-won.

SA-DGMP is SAFOD’s response to that reality. It pushes for policies, programmes, and budgets that see women and girls with disabilities — and act on what they see.