Basiru Bah, left and Lydia Rosasi, right. Photos provided by Sightsavers, used with permission.
The global community stands at a critical point. With the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) rapidly approaching and progress lagging, seismic change is urgently needed. World leaders will gather in September at the United Nations’ Summit of the Future in New York, in what the Secretary-General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, has described as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to re-invigorate global action.”
Global Voices interviewed two young disability rights activists, Lydia Rosasi and Basiru Bah, who both possess a lifetime of experience living with disability in Africa, to understand their work as disability rights activists and hear what they want to convey to world leaders ahead of the United Nations Summit of the Future in New York.
Zita Zage (ZZ): Can you please tell us about yourselves?
Lydia Rosasi (LR): I am a 29-year-old disability rights activist from Nairobi, Kenya, and a global youth ambassador for Sightsavers’ Equal World campaign.
Basiru Bah (BB): I am a 30-year-old disability rights activist and SDGs advocate from Freetown, Sierra Leone. I’m also the founder and executive director of Youth and Children in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals.
ZZ: Tell us why you advocate for disability rights.
LR: As a member of this community, I understand firsthand the challenges, discrimination, and exclusion we face. Everyone deserves dignity and fair treatment, and I am committed to ensuring that people with disabilities are not left behind. As part of the Equal World campaign, I am dedicated to ensuring that young people with disabilities have a seat at the decision-making table, embracing the principle of “Nothing about us without us.” My greatest joy comes from seeing people with disabilities live full, uninterrupted lives.
BB: We face a lot of challenges as persons with disabilities when it comes to accessing services (such as education, employment, health), and this is due to the lack of our involvement in the processes that create these services. I feel we are left behind in that sense, and that is why I advocate for disability rights.
ZZ: What is the state of disability rights in Africa? Has there been any progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals?
LR: The 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is only a few years away and only 17 percent of targets are on track. We’re in danger of sleepwalking into disaster. The central promise of the goals — to leave no one behind — is in peril. And without immediate and radical action the SDGs, just like the Millennium Development Goals before them, will fail. Progress has been made quite alright, but not at the pace or depth it ought to be, and certainly not with the level of inclusion that is required.
BB: Admittedly, disability rights have been recognised by African states, including Sierra Leone, through international, regional, and national legal frameworks, such as the UN Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities, the African Disability Protocol (ADP), which came into force in June of this year, and national policies and legislations on disability rights such as the Disability Act of 2011 in Sierra Leone. Despite this, steps to make society inclusive have been slow. If a big portion of society is not being carried along, this affects how much progress can be made towards achieving the SDGs.
ZZ: In what ways do you advocate for disability rights?
LR: During the pandemic in 2020, I co-founded the Ladies with Disability Development Forum with my friend Sharon Odongo to support persons with disabilities, especially young women who could no longer run their businesses or who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. We helped to raise donations of food for families and facilitated access to medical facilities and council services during the lockdown when everything was harder to reach.
I am also currently championing inclusive communication within the government to address the fact that 90 percent of people with disabilities lack access to essential services and information.
BB: In Sierra Leone, in particular, I try to influence government and private institutions to introduce and implement inclusive policies. I also do a lot of media engagements to raise awareness of disability rights and inclusive instruments. For instance, on the eve of the Summit of the Future, I will attend the premiere of a documentary that features me and some of the next generation of disability rights leaders across the world. This film will galvanise discussion on how young people with disabilities have been engaged and recognised in the Summit of the Future process and is another way I advocate for disability rights. Through my organisation, I conduct mentoring and training sessions for young persons with disability to advocate for themselves, and accessibility to information is one of the cornerstones of this approach.
ZZ: What has been the impact of your work?
LR: I have facilitated table banking initiatives for young women with disabilities, enabling them to raise funds for starting businesses or covering school fees. Participants pool savings and take turns accessing loans, thereby creating a self-sustaining cycle of economic empowerment that makes capital accessible to new businesses and existing ones in need of expansion. It also fosters financial literacy and community support networks. For women with disabilities who often contend with intersectional discrimination, this initiative has been transformative.
BB: I campaigned to make the SDGs available in braille in Sierra Leone because I believe if the SDGs are to truly leave no one behind, they must be accessible to all. By partnering with the Sierra Leone Ministry of Planning, Sightsavers, and other partners, these braille handbooks have been distributed across schools for the visually impaired and public libraries throughout the country.
The thinking is that if more youths with disabilities gain access to information about the SDGs, they will become better equipped to advocate for their rights and participate in decision-making processes. This effort goes beyond mere translation: It is a crucial step towards addressing gaps in the global development agenda. It enables individuals with visual impairments to learn about, engage with, contribute to, and hold leaders to account for global commitments.
ZZ: What do you have to tell world leaders ahead of the United Nations’ Summit of the Future?
LR: The campaign to end global poverty requires energy — a quality inherent in youth. But it also requires experience and know-how, which are qualities that come with age. Young people bring fresh perspectives, technological savvy, and a deep understanding of current challenges to the table. When mixed with the strategic knowledge and hard-won insights of the older generations, a powerful force for change emerges. We, the youth, have the energy but may not have the ‘how’. The older ones have the ‘how’ but not the energy. So, your deliberations must consider that the ‘how’ combined with the energy of youth will help us achieve things faster.
BB: You must commit to the inclusion of people with disabilities in your plans to meet the SDGs. The Summit of the Future is an opportunity for you to do that. Although the agenda of the summit includes a focus on meaningfully including young people, UN processes rarely acknowledge the intersectionality of young people with disabilities. This means our voices aren’t heard when decisions are made about our lives and futures. To understand the barriers facing young people with disabilities, you need to listen to us. We are experts in our own lived experience, and our voices must be heard in the development of our futures.
As world leaders grapple with hydra-headed crises, from economic and political instability to climate change, the inclusion and empowerment of young people with disabilities is not merely a matter of rights; it is a matter of urgent strategic imperative for achieving sustainable, inclusive development throughout the world.
