We are almost there! Four years after the first Global Disability Summit (London, 2018) and several COVID-19 imposed postponements, the international community will gather online for the Second Global Disability Summit on 16 and 17 February.
Building on the successes of the GDS2018, the Government of Norway and the Government of Ghana along with the International Disability Alliance (IDA), co-host GDS2022, and will draw once again the attention of the international community on disability inclusion to leverage ambitious and wide-spread commitments to achieve real change for persons with disabilities worldwide.
Despite the numerous inconveniences caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020-2021, IDA, its members, and partners were able to organize 27 national and 1 regional consultations with organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) in 26 countries, 23 different spoken and sign languages, for a total of 840 people attending. Of the participants, 56% were women, 23% were indigenous peoples and 38% were from underrepresented groups of persons with disabilities.
The consultations assessed progress made against national commitments adopted in 2018, to encourage constructive dialogue between OPDs, government representatives, United Nations agencies, National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), International NGOs, and private sector organizations, among others, and brainstorm towards designing an engagement roadmap ahead of the Summit.
As a result, next week’s agenda is packed: other than the GDS itself, with its spotlight sessions, panel discussions and interactive dialogues, a variety of events will take place, including a thematic Pre-Summit, Regional Satellite Summits, a Civil Society Forum and, for the first time a Youth Summit. In addition to the events that took place in January, on next week’s agenda there are also 3 thematic workshops, 2 thematic Roundtables and 92 side events.
On our iData platform, 1267 commitments by 140 stakeholders have already been submitted, exceeding the 968 commitments made in 2018.
So far, 2410 participants from 151 countries have registered to attend this Summit. Don’t miss out the most important global event on disability inclusion! Register for:
- the Global Disability Summit, 16-17 February 2022 and see the agenda
- the Civil Society Forum, 15 February 2022 and see the agenda
- the Youth Summit, 14 February 2022 and see the agenda
For more information: https://www.globaldisabilitysummit.org/
