By Vibhu Sharma, Disability Inclusion Advisor, Theirworld
September 18, 2026 – Across the early childhood development (ECD) sector, there is growing consensus around an ambitious vision: every child should have access to primary health care, quality preschool education, and family support. Governments, development partners, philanthropic organizations, and civil society increasingly speak about universal services and universal opportunities because every child deserves the opportunity to survive, learn, and thrive.
Yet one important question deserves greater attention: Universal for whom?
The true test of universality is not whether systems reach the majority of children. It is whether they are intentionally designed to include those who are most likely to be left behind. For young children with disabilities and their families, that distinction remains significant. Too often, disability inclusion is still seen as something separate from the main early years discussion, to be considered only after policies have been designed, programs established, and investments committed, rather than as a principle that shapes those decisions from the outset.
By then, systems frequently require additional adaptations to reach children who could have been included by design. Universality becomes an aspiration rather than the principle that shapes how systems are built.
Disability inclusion is a systems issue
Like all other children, children with disabilities do not experience their lives in sectors. Health, education, family support, and social protection are experienced as one connected journey through the early years. Yet the services intended to support them are too often planned, financed, and delivered separately, leaving families to bridge gaps between systems that should already be working together. When systems are designed in isolation, children experience the consequences collectively.
This, in turn, raises a far more foundational question. If universal early childhood development does not include children with disabilities from the outset, does its claim to universality face a fundamental challenge? What makes a commitment to ECD truly universal?
The answer lies not simply in the number of children a system reaches, but in whether it has been intentionally designed to include those who are most likely to be excluded from the very beginning. Universality is not measured by coverage alone. It is measured by whether inclusion has been built into the system itself, rather than added later as an exception.
Financing shapes the architecture of inclusion
If system design determines who can access services, financing determines whether those systems become reality. Financing decisions shape far more than budgets. They determine whether frontline workers receive inclusive training; learning environments are accessible, families receive coordinated support, and governments know who is and is not being reached.
Financing, in other words, shapes the architecture of inclusion itself. When disability inclusion is absent from financing frameworks, commitment processes, and investment priorities, exclusion is often reproduced even where universal access remains the stated ambition.
Building inclusion into future commitments
This thinking has informed All Means All, developed by Theirworld with partners across the Act for Early Years (AFEY) campaign. Rather than creating a separate disability agenda, it provides a shared framework for embedding disability inclusion across commitment development, financing discussions, and system strengthening ahead of the first-ever Global Early Years Finance Summit in 2027, while ensuring that persons with disabilities and their families help shape those commitments from the outset.
It is built on a simple proposition: universal access to primary health care, quality preschool education, and family support can only be considered truly universal when children with disabilities are intentionally included from the outset.
As governments, philanthropic organizations, multilateral agencies, and civil society work towards the Summit, there is a unique opportunity to ensure that disability inclusion is embedded within the commitments being developed now, rather than considered afterwards. If disability inclusion is considered only after commitments have been agreed, an important opportunity will already be lost.
This is not about creating a separate disability agenda. It is about ensuring that commitments intended to be universal genuinely reflect every child from the very beginning.
Better systems for every child
Disability inclusion is not ultimately about creating better disability programs. It is about creating better early childhood systems. The decisions being made today will shape early childhood systems for years to come. Through All Means All, the AFEY campaign is inviting partners across governments, philanthropy, and civil society to help ensure those decisions are shaped with every child in mind. By endorsing the framework and embedding disability inclusion into the commitments that will define the Global Early Years Finance Summit, organizations have an opportunity to help ensure that universal early childhood development truly lives up to its promise. The true measure of universality is not how many children a system reaches, but whether it has been intentionally designed to reach those most likely to be excluded. Because when we say universal, we must mean all.
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About Theirworld
Theirworld is a global children’s charity dedicated to ending the global education crisis and unleashing the potential of future generations. Our diverse and active network of youth, social entrepreneurs, campaigners, businesses and researchers work in more than 120 countries to ensure all young people have the best start in life, a safe place to learn and skills for the future. We deliver life-changing projects and run powerful campaigns to unlock big change. Learn more about the organization.