Systems Failure: Where Do We Go From Here?
About the session
1.3 billion people, approximately 1 in 6 globally, live with disabilities. Yet across health and economic systems, exclusion remains the norm.
In partnership with the Skoll Foundation, the Missing Billion Initiative has brought together a global cohort of disability leaders who are actively reshaping how systems function in their contexts. These leaders - working across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and North America - are not only navigating systems, but influencing how they are designed, delivered, and improved.
This session builds on that work, bringing these leaders into conversation to connect lived experience with system-level insight. Drawing on their work across healthcare access, economic participation, and leadership, they will surface what exclusion reveals about system design - and what more inclusive systems can look like in practice.
The Cohort of leaders include:
Gedlemikael Abebe (Ethiopia)
Melissa Malzkuhn (USA)
Dr. Satendra Singh (India)
Asma Baker (UAE)
Lois Auta (Nigeria)
Nicki Clara (Indonesia)
Carolina Catacutan- Sam (Philippines)
Together, they will bring perspectives grounded in both lived experience and professional expertise, offering a view of inclusion that is practical, evidence-informed, and already in motion.
Framed around health access, economic participation and Power the session explores a central question:
What does it take to design systems that enable full participation - and what can we learn from those already leading this work?
Who this is for
This session is designed for funders, policymakers, social entrepreneurs, and system leaders working across health, economic, and social sectors who are interested in building more inclusive and effective systems.
What you will get out of it
A clearer understanding of how disability inclusion shapes outcomes across health and economic systems
Insight into how disability leaders are already driving change within these systems
Practical examples of approaches that improve access to healthcare and strengthen economic participation
Perspectives on how lived experience can inform system design, decision-making, and leadership
Opportunities to reflect on how inclusion can be advanced within your own work and context
Hosted by
The Missing Billion Initiative
Session focus
This session highlights disability inclusion not only as a challenge, but as a source of leadership, innovation, and system improvement. By centering the work of disability leaders across contexts, it invites participants to consider how more inclusive approaches can strengthen health and economic systems for everyone.