Set against Indonesia’s fast-growing ties with the wider Middle East and North Africa, it raises a bigger question: could disability policy become a real tool in how Indonesia and the region build closer relations with each other? Indonesia’s relationship with the Middle East used to run mainly through two channels: buying oil and gas, and sending pilgrims to Mecca. Cooperation on disability policy is a small thread next to all that money. Across the Middle East and North Africa, the picture is just as uneven. Disability policy is one of the few areas of government work where that image can actually be demonstrated, rather than just claimed in speeches.