On August 15-16, an annual meeting for all stakeholders of USAID’s six disability projects was held in Quang Nam, one of USAID’s target provinces. Approximately 160 representatives from national and provincial government agencies, implementing partners, international NGOs, disability rights advocates and most importantly, persons with disabilities attended the meeting to review the progress made in FY2018.   The review highlighted that during the year, USAID’s projects served over 12,000 persons with disabilities and supported the establishment of 16 new rehabilitation units in Tay Ninh and Binh Phuoc provinces, where rehabilitation services did not exist before. In addition, 27 local policies and procedures were drafted or revised to include persons with disabilities and service for them and over 3,000 local service providers were trained to better service persons with disabilities. Participants also discussed future projects, coordination, technical standardization and ways to ensure synergy between stakeholders.

So What? As USAID works with Vietnam to create sustainable models for inclusion of persons with disabilities, reviewing progress and formulating next steps is important to achieve the end goal, which is enabling persons with disabilities to lead more independent and fulfilling lives.