November 5, 2020, Niamey
On November 4th and 5th, 2020, the West Africa Federation of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (WAFOD), the African Disability Forum (ADF) and the International Disability...
Towards inclusive social protection systems to advance the rights of persons with disabilities 2019-2020
Building on the process facilitated by ILO and International Disability Alliance (IDA) that led to the adoption of a joint statement on inclusive social protection[i] and the current momentum on universal social protection, this UNPRPD funded initiative, implemented jointly by ILO and UNICEF in close cooperation with IDA seeks the collaborative development of capacity across countries, DPOs, development agencies and academia to support reforms towards inclusive social protection systems fostering inclusion and empowerment, in compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Background
There is increasing evidence confirming that persons with disabilities are more exposed to risk of poverty[ii] due to barriers in accessing employment, education and health care as well as disability related costs[iii] and lack of access to support services. It is also widely acknowledged that social protection is critical to support the inclusion of persons as disabilities as reflected at global level within the SDGs and the Addis Ababa Agenda for Action and at regional level in initiatives such as the UN-ESCAP Incheon strategy implementation[iv] and the recent UN ESCWA report[v].
Despite these acknowledgements, in most countries the majority of persons with disabilities do not benefit from effective social protection. There are many challenges in terms of actual design, coverage and adequacy of programs:
The 2018 Joint statement “Towards inclusive social protection systems supporting full and effective participation and inclusion of persons with disabilities”, represents a consensus among some UN agencies, bilateral development agencies, DPOs and NGOs of the key issues to tackled and the direction of reforms to undertake to build inclusive social protection systems.
Objective of the project
The UNPRPD initiative seeks to develop practical guidance for countries, development agencies and DPOs for the reform of different critical aspects of social protection systems. The main components of the project are:
The project will be implemented with extensive consultation and exchange with social protection and disability specialists from countries and development agencies, DPOs, academia. It will seek evidence and practice based technical consensus to develop missing technical resources required by the different stakeholders as well as increase mobilization for CRPD compliant inclusive social protection.
[i] A joint statement “Towards inclusive social protection systems supporting full and effective participation and inclusion of persons with disabilities”, 2018
[ii] Banks, L. M., Kuper, H., & Polack, S. (2017). Poverty and disability in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review. PLoS ONE, 12(12), e0189996.
[iii] Mitra, Sophie et al (2017) Extra costs of living with a disability: A review and agenda for research. Disability and Health Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , 475 – 484
[iv] High-level Intergovernmental Meeting on the Midpoint Review of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 2013-2022
[v] UNESCWA (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia). 2017. Strengthening Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities in the Framework of the 2030 Agenda.
[vi] ILO Social Protection World Report, 2017
[vii] (2018)). Disability - inclusive social protection in Nepal: A national overview with a case study from Tanahun district And Lena M Banks, and al (2018) Disability-inclusive social protection in Vietnam: A national overview with a case study from Cam Le district. International Centre for Evidence in Disability Research Report: London, UK.
[viii] Development Pathways, DFID upcoming