Disability and Development Report 2024 : Accelerating the Realization of the Sustainable Development Goals by, for and with Persons with Disabilities

A refreshed global analysis gathers extensive data, laws, and policies to evaluate socio-economic hurdles faced by persons with disabilities amid COVID-19. Despite progress under the 2030 Agenda, enduring disparities—especially for marginalized groups—demand swift, coordinated reforms.

The UN Disability and Development Report 2024 provides an updated comprehensive analysis to address the needs of the international community to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for persons with disabilities. The publication is an update of the UN Disability and Development Report 2018, and it presents the most recent global analysis based on an unprecedented amount of data, legislation and policies from all countries to understand the socio-economic circumstances of persons with disabilities worldwide and the challenges and barriers they faced in their daily lives, including the exacerbated impacts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This analysis shows that, since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, there has been much progress, despite the setbacks posed by COVID-19. But many persons with disabilities still fall behind and continue to face barriers and discrimination. Gaps between persons with and without disabilities persist in the implementation of all the SDGs. For women with disabilities, indigenous persons with disabilities and persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, the gaps are even wider. Although great strides have been made, if the observed trends since 2015 continue, the world will not achieve the SDGs for persons with disabilities by 2030. Progress needs to be accelerated. Against the backdrop of all the available evidence, the report identifies good practices and recommends urgent actions to accelerate this progress. The e-book for this publication has been converted into an accessible format for the visually impaired and people with print reading disabilities. It is fully compatible with leading screen-reader technologies such as JAWS and NVDA.