GENEVA (ILO News) – A global virtual conference on how to include people with disabilities in social protection systems will take place 16-17 March 2022.

The Disability – Social Protection – Inclusion: Dialogue for Change conference will address a broad range of issues, including country practices, how to combine different benefits and services to ensure income security, coverage of disability-related extra costs and access to health care and other needed services for people with disabilities.

Sessions will also address the changing needs of people with disabilities across the life cycle, disability data, mechanisms for disability determination and assessment and the financing of social protection for people with disabilities.

Persons with disabilities face increased expenditure and are more exposed to poverty due to barriers in accessing employment, education, health care and support services. Social protection is critical to support the social and economic inclusion of persons with disabilities, as reflected in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and, at regional level, in initiatives such as the Incheon strategy implementation by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and the report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). Yet, in most countries the majority of persons with disabilities do not benefit from effective social protection.

The conference is being organized by the International Labour Organization jointly with UNICEF and a broad coalition of partners including the World Bank, UN Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), International Development Association (IDA), UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the UN Joint SDG Fund and the EU programme on Social Protection and Public Finance Management. It will mark the end of the programme financed by the UNPRPD, Towards inclusive social protection to advance the rights of persons with disabilities.

Interpretation in Arabic, French, International Sign Language, Russian, Spanish, as well as captioning services will be available.

The conference takes place from 14:00 – 17:00 and is open to the public. You can register online. Recordings of the sessions will be available on the conference webpage.