One of the biggest barriers to disability support and benefits is not having the disability certified by concerned authorities. To address this, USAID’s Disability Rights Enforcement, Coordination, and Therapies (DIRECT) project is training certifying officials and helping persons with disabilities obtain disability certificates so they can apply for disability benefits. Over the last few months, USAID’s DIRECT project has supported training events for 610 members of local disability classification councils in Binh Phuoc province on how to classify disability severity under government regulations.  As a result, around 2,900 new beneficiaries were awarded with social security disability insurance.

So What? USAID is helping improve policy enforcement and resources for disability services in Vietnam, as well as people’s access to health insurance and social security disability benefits, thereby improving long-term sustainability of Vietnam’s support to persons with disabilities.