CVC2026 in WHO Disability Health Equity Network newsletter!

The WHO Disability Health Equity Network (based in Geneva, Switzerland) profiled our Children’s Voices Conference (2026) in their newsletter (see below and attached)! They wrote

"The Children’s Voices Centre at Charles Sturt University international online conference held 1-3 September
The event brought together researchers, practitioners and students from around the world to share research with, for and about children, including several presentations on the right to health for children with disabilities. Find out more and see event presentations at Children’s Voices Conference 2026 (CVC2026)”

WHO Disability Health Equity Network: Workstream 4

Today was the sixth meeting of Workstream 4 of the WHO Disability Health Equity Network.

Scheduling WHO meetings is difficult. Here are the timezones we each were meeting on: 

• Tue Sep 15: 3-4pm ET
• Tue Sep 15: 9-10pm CEST
• Wed Sep 16: 5-6am AEST (Sydney, Australian time)

We discussed the outcomes of each of the subcommittees to date. I am in subcommittee 3.  We are focusing on research and evidence mobilization.

 

 

It was announced that there is a special issue of Disability and Health Journal https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/disability-and-health-journal titled Global Disability Health Equity https://www.sciencedirect.com/special-issue/336891/global-disability-health-equity

World Health Organization meeting with Children's Voices Centre

Tonight we had our 2-monthly meeting with Dr Mél Gréaux from the World Health Organization to advance the collaborative project with the Children's Voices Centre 

AIM: To advance health equity for persons with disabilities by understanding the experience and perspectives of children with disabilities in the health sector

We are at the 18-month point of our 2-year project - so there are a lot of excellent results being discussed as we are finalising the presentations and publications from our research. We were pleased that Mél summarised the meeting with the sentence "As always, it's massively impressive". Thanks Mél - we really enjoy working with you too.

Sharynne  McLeod, Mél Gréaux, Kate Freire, Carolyn Gregoric, Belinda Downey, Helen L. Blake

World Health Organization Disability Health Equity Network Workstream 4

Tonight (9-10pm) was the 5th meeting of the World Health Organization Disability Health Equity Network Workstream 4. Tonight our international working group discussed updates from the sub-committees and possible cross-workstream opportunities. 

There are four domains of this Workstream 4: 

1. Awareness 
2. Data Indicators 
3. Research and Evidence 
4. Resource Mobilization

 

CVC and World Health Organization collaboration

Our CVC team met this morning to update our progress on the CVC and WHO collaborative projects exploring children's perspectives of health. Most projects have completed the data collection phase and are currently being written up. There will be a lot of publications submitted in the next half of the year.

Tamara, Sharynne, Belinda, Kathy, Carolyn, Helen, Kate F

WHO bi-montly meeting with CVC

This evening we met with Dr Mél Gréaux from the Disability Programme at the World Health Organization to discuss the Children's Voices Centre progress on our 2-year project to consider health equity for children with disability. Our research is progressing from action to publications and presentations - and has already has been influential in presentations at WHO (Fiji and Geneva) and UN. We discussed future plans for audience and influence of this research, which may include COSP at the UN in June.  

Holly McAlister, Sharynne  McLeod, Mél Gréaux, Tamara Cumming, Kate Crowe, Helen Blake, Belinda Downey, Kate Freire, Kathy Cologon

WHO Workstream 4 meeting

This morning - before presenting workshops at Catholic Education Tasmania - I attended (online) the Workstream 4 meeting for the World Health Organization Disability Health Equity Network. This meeting was to finalise the workplan and who will work wtihin each domain.

There are four domains of this Workstream 4: 

1. Awareness 
2. Data Indicators 
3. Research and Evidence 
4. Resource Mobilization

I will be working on the Research and Evidence domain:

Objective 1: Support the dissemination of existing research, evidence, and resources on approaches to monitor and examine disability health equity. 

Actions: 

• Promote relevant and emerging disability health equity research, including the development of standardized approaches for translating research findings into accessible, plain language materials for public, community, and social media dissemination.
• Support or lead special issues in scientific journals on disability health equity research.
• Develop an editorial or a position paper on the importance of implementation research to improve disability health equity.
• Host events, panels, and discussions on disability health equity research at conferences and research forums.

Objective 2: Advocate for disability-inclusive research that advances health equity for persons with disabilities.

Actions: 

• Promote WHO Global Research Agenda on disability health equity.
• Advocate for scientific journals to promote disability inclusive research approaches (e.g., support special issues on disability health equity research, uptake of a checklist on disability inclusive research, inclusion of people with disabilities on editorial boards, reviewers, and  research in general).
• Advocate for the inclusion of persons with disabilities as participants in health research.
• Support disability health equity research collaborations between members across the network (e.g. establishing links between research institutions in the global north-south)

Collaboration activities between WHO and Charles Sturt University (2025-2026)

Collaboration activities between WHO and Charles Sturt University (2025-2026)
Views of children and young people with disabilities about health and the health system

The Children's Voices Centre staff and affiliates have had a number of meetings this week. We are so proud of our achievements from 2025 and look forward to finalising the work during 2026.

CVC-WHO team meeting - 10 Feb 2026

Scoping review team - lead by Dr Kate Freire - 9 Feb 2026

FEEDBACK FROM WHO 14 February 2026

Thank you very much - this is wonderful!! Congratulations again to the whole team for the impressive work achieved in just one year. It is truly inspiring and we couldn’t be more pleased with the breadth of your activities and the quality of your inputs bringing the voices of children with disabilities in this space.

 Objective of the collaboration (2025-2026)
•    “The collaboration between WHO and Charles Sturt University will contribute to WHO’s efforts in supporting Member States to implement the actions and recommendations from the [WHO Global report on health equity for persons with disabilities]. More specifically, the collaboration activities will help to collect the latest evidence to support Member States promote engagement of communities and other stakeholders (particularly with children and young people with disabilities).”
•    “The overarching aim of these activities will be to provide guidance to WHO on how they could support Member States better understand the views of children and young people with disabilities, and integrate them in health system planning.”
 

Research team
•    World Health Organization Disability Programme (Switzerland): Dr Mélanie Gréaux
•    Charles Sturt University, Children’s Voices Centre (Australia): Prof Sharynne McLeod, A/Prof Kathryn Crowe, A/Prof Suzanne C. Hopf, Prof Sarah Verdon, Prof Julian Grant, Dr Lysa Dealtry, Dr Belinda Downey, Dr Kate Freire, Dr Helen L. Blake, Dr Carolyn Gregoric, and Holly McAlister, A/Prof Kathy Cologon

Research activities
During 2025 research activities were undertaken “to build evidence on the experiences and perspectives of children and young people with disabilities on health and access to healthcare services”. 

Monthly progress meetings were held with WHO and CSU were held (typically Thursday 7pm-8pm Australian time).

Two main research activities were planned over the 2-year period (2025-2026)

Activity #1: A world-wide online qualitative study to explore children and young people with disabilities’ views about health and their experiences in health services. 
Activity #2: A scoping or systematic review on the experiences of children with disabilities in the health sector. 

 Presentations (World Health Organization/United Nations)
•    76th Session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for the Western Pacific (RCM76) | Nadi, Fiji | October 2025 | Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Helen L. Blake, Holly McAlister https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2025/10/76th-session-of-world-health.html
•    Launch WHO Disability Health Equity Network Meeting | Geneva, Switzerland | 12-13 November, 2025 | Dr Mélanie Gréaux, Prof Sharynne McLeod https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2025/11/world-health-organization-disability.html
•    World Children's Day event at Charles Sturt University with  David Ohana, Chief Communications & Marketing Officer, United Nations Foundation https://unfoundation.org/who-we-are/our-people/david-ohana/ | 20th November, 2025| A/Prof Kathy Cologon, A/Prof Tamara Cumming https://alumni.csu.edu.au/news-and-events/events/industry/from-regional-roots-to-global-impact-kids-interview-un-changemaker-david-ohana 

Outputs
Report
•    Children draw health to advance health equity: Insights from children with disabilities (lay-person’s report) https://cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/4506148/CVC-Children-draw-health-2025-Fiji-submission.pdf

Art exhibitions 
•    Children Draw Health Global Online Gallery https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-health
•    Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) exhibition (November 2025-January 2026) https://bathurstart.com.au/exhibitions-events/cvc-children-draw-health/ (Opening Night Event: Friday 21 November – A/Prof Tamara Cumming guest speaker)

Research outputs
Journal article (submitted)
•    McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Downey, B., Cumming, T., Cologon, K. & Gréaux, M. (2025, submitted October). Children’s perspectives about health and healthcare: A global arts-based study focusing on children with disabilities [Manuscript submitted for publication]. Charles Sturt University. 

Children Draw Health on display at the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery

Our Children Draw Health Global Online Gallery is currently on display at the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery. What a great way to profile our children's voices!

Here is the whole gallery:  https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-health

 

WHO - CVC monthly meeting

 

Sharynne  McLeod, Mél Gréaux, Kathy Cologon, Tamara Cumming, Lysa Dealtry

We had a wonderful meeting this evening to summarize all of the achievements over the past year in our research with Dr Mél Gréaux from the Disability Programme of the World Health Organization in Geneva. Some of the highlights of the year included being accepted into the WHO Global Disability Health Equity Network and presenting our research to WHO meetings in Geneva and Fiji. I was excited to see that the summary of the WHO meeting in Geneva that I attended in November included a photo of me reading the children's insights from our CVC on page 8! 

We have submitted one journal article (under review) and have some of the children's insights available here: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-health Thanks Mél for your encouragement and support of our research to profile the voices of children with disabilities. We are excited to continue this work in 2026.

CVC submissions to government and global organizations

 The Children's Voices Centre has worked with children to create a number of submissions: 

• Submission to Review of the Australian Disability Discrimination Act (Nov, 2025)
• Submission to World Health Organization Disability Health Equity Network (Nov, 2025) (https://cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/4506148/CVC-Children-draw-health-2025-Fiji-submission.pdf)
• Submission to United Nations Human Rights 75 Youth Declaration (https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/youth/hr75/submissions/subm-views-youth-led-cso-early-childhood-interdisciplinary-resear.pdf)

 

Meeting with Dr Mélanie Gréaux

This morning I met with Dr Mélanie Gréaux to discuss the WHO meeting over the past two days, our current research to listen to children with disabilities about equitable health care, and future plans. It is always a joy to spend time with Mél. We made some great future plans.

 

World Health Organization Disability Equity Health Network launch in Geneva

 The World Health Organization Disability Equity Health Network was launched today (Wednesday 12th November, 2025) at WHO in Geneva. The WHO team leading the Network are Dr Darryl Barrett, Dr Kaloyan Kamenov, Dr Mélanie Gréaux and Dr Francesca Moro https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2025/11/12/default-calendar/inaugural-meeting-of-the-who-disability-health-equity-network

WHO Disability Programme team: Dr Kaloyan Kamenov, Dr Francesca Moro, Dr Mélanie Gréaux, Dr Darryl Bennett

Members of the WHO Disability Equity Health Network in Geneva

 

 

Dr Mélanie Gréaux (WHO Disability Programme), Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod (CSU), Dr Kaloyan Kamenov (WHO Disability Programme)

The Health equity for persons with disabilities: guide for action (or Disability inclusion guide for action) provides practical guidance on the process that ministries of health should lead on to integrate disability inclusion into health systems governance, planning, and monitoring processes. It serves as the foundational resource to enable ministries of health and partners to implement the recommendations of the Global report on health equity for persons with disabilities. In line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Disability inclusion guide for action supports Member States to meet commitments to "leave no one behind" and achieve the highest attainable standard of health for all people. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/B09201 ; https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240101517

 

The Executive Board room at WHO has only just opened after 3 years of renovations - so it was very special to have the launch held in this auspicious room.

It was an honour to represent Charles Sturt University at this meeting - and as one of the 152 approved members. 

WHO Disability Equity Health Network Membership:  1,095 expressions of interest, 270 completed applications,  152 approved members (31 member states, 13 intergovernmental organizations, 72 members of civil society, 32 academia, 4 private sector). 67 members attended the meeting in Geneva, with others online. 

Distinguished Professor Sharynne  McLeod described the work of the Children's Voices Centre during the launch

Sharynne  with WHO Disability Program Director, Dr Darryl Barrett

Dr Kaloyan Kamenov described the journey so far: 

• 2001 - International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)
• 2006  - Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
• 2007 - ICF-CY 
• 2011 - World Report on Disability (WRD)
• 2014 - WHO Global Disability Action Plan
• 2015 - Sustainable Development Goals (with 11 SDGs mentioning "leave no one behind")
• 2021 - WHO statement
• 2022 - Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities
• 2025 - Launch of the Disability Health Equity Network in Geneva

Australians at the WHO meeting - Prof Scott Avery (Professor of Indigenous disability health and wellbeing, UTS), Sharynne, Anna Maalsen (Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria)

Sharynne  with Renée De Jong (Save the Children, Geneva/Australia)

 

Some ideas 

• World Hearing Forum (Carolina Der Mussa) -  Showcasing changemakers = "people with disability who show us and change us"
• SPECS - Have vision stories - https://www.who.int/teams/noncommunicable-diseases/sensory-functions-disability-and-rehabilitation/eye-care-vision-impairment-and-blindness/have-vision 

WHO Reception 

Swiss cheese at the reception on a WHO plate

Children Draw Health Global Online Galleries

 The Children Draw Health Global Online Galleries are now on Charles Sturt University's YouTube channel 

• What makes you healthy: https://youtu.be/Lwedfy8_MB8
• Where to go to get healthier: https://youtu.be/365OwVm4oRs
• Who helps you be healthy: https://youtu.be/jATxwhYCyV4
• Ideal health service: https://youtu.be/7-X-z4gFDOg
• Four Galleries:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwedfy8_MB8&list=PLRXcSAl_dA7YoGpVsg-oyKe3et80WnfVl

They  are also available on the Children's Voices Centre website: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-health

Here is our summary document: https://cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/4506148/CVC-Children-draw-health-2025-Fiji-submission.pdf  

Thanks to the children from 18 countries who submitted 126 drawings to be included, the CVC Children's Advisory Groups, Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Dr Belinda Downey, Patrick McKenzie and the CSU Brand and webteams for their work to put this together.

 

Monthly meeting with World Health Organization

We had another wonderful meeting with Dr Mélanie Gréaux from the World Health Organization to update everyone on the huge amount of work that we have done over the past month. 

This has included being certified as a Member of the WHO Disability Health Equity Network. We learned that to date, 1088 expressions of interest were received, 261 were full applications and 141 have been approved. The deadline has been extended for Member States. The launch will be held from 12-13 November in Geneva.

We also have finished our Children's Voices Centre Children's Advisory Group analysis of 126 drawings from 18 countries to provide an overview of children's recommendations about health and access to healthcare. Our recommendations are ready to present in Fiji in a few weeks' time.

Our scoping review is in full swing with full text data extraction continuing being led by Dr Kate Freire. 

Thanks team!

Sharynne, Mel, Helen, Belinda, Carolyn

CSU representatives on the World Health Organization Disability Health Equity Network

Charles Sturt University has been accepted as an inaugural Member of the World Health Organization Disability Health Equity Network (2025-2027). The WHO Disability Health Equity Network “envisions health equity for all persons with disabilities in support of the implementation of the WHA74.8 Resolution on the Highest attainable standard of health for persons with disabilities and advance WHO’s work on closing the avoidable health gaps between persons with disabilities and the broader population.” The extensive application process was led by the Children’s Voices Centre. Charles Sturt’s representatives to the WHO Network are Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod and Associate Professor Kathy Cologon. The first meeting of the Network will be held in Geneva in November 2025.

Charles Sturt University is a member of the WHO Disability Health Equity Network

Today we received the welcome news that we have been accepted as a member of the WHO Disability Health Equity Network.

We are pleased to welcome Charles Sturt University as a member of the WHO Disability Health Equity Network. Please find attached the Disability Health Equity Network membership certificate for your entity, and a copy of the Terms of reference for the Network. 

CSU's application was focused on the work of the Children's Voices Centre. We are proud to work with WHO to change the lives of children and others with disabilities and the workforce, families and communities who support them.

We have added this partnership to our CVC website: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/engage-with-us 

 

Terms of Reference

The WHO Disability Health Equity Network (hereinafter referred to as the Network)
envisions health equity for all persons with disabilities in support of the implementation of the WHA74.8 Resolution on the Highest attainable standard of health for persons with disabilities and advance WHO’s work on closing the avoidable health gaps between persons with disabilities and the broader population. The Network aims to advance the GPW14 Strategic Objective 4: Improve health service coverage and financial protection to address inequity and gender inequalities; more specifically:
• 4.1. Equity in access to quality services improved for noncommunicable diseases, mental health conditions and communicable diseases, while addressing antimicrobial resistance; and
• 4.2. Equity in access to sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, adolescent,
and older person health and nutrition services and immunization coverage improved. It also advances the goal of leaving no one behind.

Cheers from our team: Sharynne, Suzanne, Holly 

 

Application submitted to WHO Disability Health Equity Network

I just submitted an application to the WHO Disability Health Equity Network  on behalf of Charles Sturt University and the Children's Voices Centre with the approval and assistance from DVCR Neena Mitter, PVCI Michael Friend, Jason White, Annette Harris (Research Office) and A/Prof Tamara Cumming. 

 Here is the invitation from WHO to submit the application:

The WHO Disability Programme is pleased to announce the launch of the first call for membership applications to join the WHO Disability Health Equity Network https://www.who.int/initiatives/disability-health-equity-initiative/network, a global Network of stakeholders working together to advance health equity for persons with disabilities.
 
I’m reaching out to you as a valued academic partner with established research leadership in the field. As part of our efforts to build a strong WHO Disability Health Equity Network, I wanted to personally ensure you were aware of this opportunity to apply for membership. 
 
Kindly note that you would be eligible to apply as a research centre, lab, or department (= Children’s Voices Centre).
  
We’ve created a dedicated WHO Disability Health Equity Network webpage which outlines key information, such as: 
•    Purpose and role of the Network 
•    Terms of Reference of the Network 
•    Member profiles, roles and benefits
•    Eligibility criteria 
•    Workstreams 
•    Membership application process, guidance and online form.

We have submitted to workstreams 1 and 4.

1. Build leadership on health equity among persons with disabilities
2. Establish robust indicators, evidence and monitoring