What is the GPDD

• The Global Partnership for Disability and Development (GPDD) is a global initiative to strengthen international cooperation to accelerate the integration of disability issues and considerations into mainstream social and economic development efforts.

• GPDD is unprecedented alliance of Disabled People's Organizations (DPOs), government ministries, bilateral and multilateral donors, United Nations (UN) agencies, NGOs, national and international development organizations, and other organizations, committed to promoting economic and social inclusion of people with disabilities in low-income countries.

History

The Global Partnership for Disability & Development was created in response to the recognition that poverty alleviation in developing countries and genuine progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) requires that people with disabilities be explicitly taken into account in national and international economic development efforts. GPDD emerged through informal discussions at the United Nations International Day of Disabled Persons at the World Bank in December 2002. It has since evolved into a broad, multi-constituency alliance committed to creating a reliable and effective platform to combat the social and economic exclusion and impoverishment of people with disabilities and their families in developing countries.