MDG 6—What about Disabled People?

The 2008 UNAIDS Global Update estimated that there were 33 million people living with HIV and that, of these, 67 per cent of adults and 90 per cent of children live in sub-Saharan Africa. There were 2.7 million new infections during 2007 and 2.1 million AIDS deaths, 76 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa. The aims of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6 are to arrest the spread of HIV and to promote access to treatment. However, the vulnerability to HIV of people with disabilities, their need for HIV & AIDS information and the constraints they face in accessing treatment have largely been ignored by international development academics and practitioners when disabled people may account for 10 per cent of the world's population and 80 million Africans are estimated to be disabled. Why, then, are disabled people not mentioned anywhere in descriptions of or implementation strategies for MDG 6? This article will use the case study of the relationship of disabled people in Mozambique to HIV & AIDS to draw out the reasons for disabled people being ignored throughout HIV & AIDS policy and services and then provide recommendations to bring about disabled people's inclusion.