Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps his Department is taking to support disabled children abroad.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's ambition is for all children with disabilities to realise their right to education, equipped with the foundational skills and knowledge to lead fulfilling lives, and to learn in an environment that is inclusive, accessible, safe from all forms of violence, and free from discrimination.

Through the FCDO's Disability Inclusion and Rights Strategy and Girls' Education Action Plan, we have committed to prioritise interventions that tackle the barriers that children with disabilities experience in accessing quality education.

The Girls' Education Challenge has supported 154,386 girls with disabilities to attend school and the programme has provided over 5,000 assistive devices to learners who need them and addressed stigma and discrimination at community and school level to make it easier for children with disabilities to access schools.

Our Disability Inclusive Development programme is testing 'what works' in providing children with disabilities quality inclusive education in Nepal, Nigeria and Tanzania. The programme has already supported the education of 1,684 children with disabilities and the lessons learnt are being shared across FCDO's network of education programmes as well as being published as a global public good.