I was lucky to recently attend the Global Action on Disability’s annual general meeting in Washington DC. I met fellow leaders from different sectors working on disability inclusive international development, in my capacity as Technical Advisor on Disability Inclusion to the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. I managed to sneak a quick photo in front of the White House and at the Capitol, right around the time of mid-term elections, so the buzz was palpable. We had many fruitful and important conversations in our meetings around disability inclusive climate action and justice, something I am now focusing on in my advisory role. There is still a lot of work to be done, but we are taking big steps forward and especially around collaborating with disability advocates (like myself) and Organisations of Persons with Disabilities globally. I travelled on to New York afterwards and spent some time meeting colleagues at the UK Mission but also colleagues working at the UN itself. It was an incredible experience to see where negotiations take place on resolutions and zero drafts in person, after feeding text and lines into them on behalf of the UK over the past couple of years now. When I left university as a language graduate, my dream job was to be a translator at the UN. Of course, I would never have been fluent enough to secure that job, but I feel grateful that life has somehow navigated me back to this dream in a round about way, albeit in a different role!
