New York, NY, July 22, 2026 —  The International Rescue Committee (IRC) and CBM Christian Blind Mission (CBM) have announced a five-year strategic partnership to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in humanitarian action. The partnership brings together IRC's protection expertise and extensive presence across crisis-affected settings with CBM's decades of expertise in disability-inclusive humanitarian programming and its global partner network of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs).

Meeting an Urgent Need 

Persons with disabilities, who make up an estimated 16% of the global population, face heightened risks in humanitarian crises—yet they remain among the most consistently excluded from humanitarian response systems. Barriers to accessing aid, exclusion from decision-making and coordination, and the absence of disability-inclusive design compound vulnerability at every stage. Women and girls with disabilities, older persons, adolescents, and caregivers face intersecting risks that demand targeted action. 

This partnership comes at a crucial time when, despite growing commitments to the Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), implementation on the ground remains inconsistent. The partnership between IRC and CBM is designed to bridge that gap, by building the evidence base, developing practical tools, and embedding disability inclusion into the systems and organizations that shape humanitarian response, aiming to translate global expertise into country-level action.

A Comprehensive Approach 

This collaboration formalizes and deepens a relationship that is already yielding results, through joint capacity-building efforts at the country level and coordinated global engagement via the Disability Reference Group (DRG), where IRC and CBM already collaborate. IRC embeds its commitments under its 'Safe, Inclusive, and Transformative Programming' (SIT) framework, while CBM advances them through its 'Inclusive Humanitarian Action' (IHA) initiative. 

Guiding Principles 

The partnership focuses on four core areas:

  1. Knowledge & Learning: Joint development and exchange of global learning products, methodologies, and guidance on disability inclusion and OPD engagement — including case studies, learning briefs, and co-facilitated webinars.
  2. OPD Leadership & Participation: Strengthening the role of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities in humanitarian policy dialogue, coordination spaces, and strategic processes — ensuring local expertise shapes priorities and decisions. 
  3. Advocacy & Representation: Coordinated engagement in key global forums including the Disability Reference Group (DRG), Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks (HNPW), and the Conference of States Parties (CoSP) to the CRPD.
  4. Technical Collaboration: Mutual sharing of expertise — including IRC's protection risk analysis and SIT tools, and CBM's OPD mapping methodology and IHA approaches — to advance inclusive humanitarian systems. 

The partnership will facilitate connections between IRC and CBM country teams who will co-develop case studies that document successful inclusive approaches that can be implemented across crises in varying contexts.