The Joint Statement for Disability-Inclusive Social Protection Systems supports the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities

Despite being one of the youngest and poorest countries of the region, Timor-Leste has offered a universal social pension to its senior citizens and persons with disabilities since 2008. Almost all persons above 60 years and about one in five persons with disabilities participate in the scheme. The pensions...

The UN Economic and Social Commission (ESCWA) will hold an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on 11-12 April in Beirut, Lebanon to discuss its forthcoming publication, Disability in the Arab Region 2017: strengthening social protection for persons with disabilities. The EGM will provide an overview of the draft publication and...

Over two million women and girls with disability live in Australia – that’s approximately 20 percent of all women and girls. Like everyone else, we all have different lives and experiences. We also have different personal experiences of disability. As a group, however, women and girls with disability experience...

This report focuses on measures to improve accessibility and equality of opportunity; promoting participation and inclusion; and increasing respect for the autonomy and dignity of persons with disabilities. Chapter 1 defines terms such as disability, discusses prevention and its ethical considerations, introduces the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and...

On 20-21 September, ESCWA launched the its Inter-Sessional Expert Group on Disability. Policy makers from countries across the region, including Iraq, Lebanon, Mauritania and Yemen attended. Read more about the event and the Expert Group on ESCWA’s website.   Photo credit: “Ashtar is the best days of the week!,...

This paper systematically reviews the evidence on whether persons with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries are adequately included in social protection programmes, and assesses the financial and non-financial impacts of participation. Overall, we found that access to social protection appears to fall far below need. Benefits from participation...

Disability is an intrinsic aspect of the human condition and most people will experience disability at some point in their lives. Globally, one billion people—or 15 per cent of the world population—are estimated to be living with disability. By contrast, Arab countries report comparatively low prevalence of disability, ranging...

Social protection systems play a key role in meeting the specific needs of persons with disabilities with regard to income security, social health protection and social inclusion. Disability benefits are one of the elements of social protection systems that explicitly address disability-related needs and provide income support to persons...

Building on the process facilitated by ILO and International Disability Alliance (IDA) that led to the adoption of a joint statement on inclusive social protectionm and the current momentum on universal social protection, the UNPRPD funded project, implemented jointly by ILO and UNICEF in close cooperation with IDA seeks...

The paper provides regional and global estimates of the costs and financing gaps of target 1.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relating to social protection and analyses a number of options for filling those financing gaps in the developing countries using domestic and external resources. The paper considers...

This joint statement reflects our shared commitment to inclusive social protection systems for persons with disabilities. The statement emerged from meetings and discussions between international partners working on the issues of disability and social protection. These meetings also contributed to the first report of the United Nations (UN) Special...

The ILO’s General Survey 2019 , compiled by the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR). The Survey (published under the title Universal social protection for human dignity, social justice and sustainable development) focuses on the ILO’s Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), which calls for...

Throughout the world, more people are working later in life. Between 2000 and 2017, the employment-to-population ratio at ages 60 to 64 increased 15 percentage points among the 36 mostly high-income nations that make up the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Employment rates for this age group...

The Social Outlook for Asia and the Pacific lays out new arguments and evidence for the critical and urgent need to increase investment in people, particularly in social protection. Developing countries in Asia and the Pacific only spend about 3.7 per cent of GDP on social protection, compared to...

Governments of the ESCAP region gathered in Incheon, Republic of Korea, from 29 October to 2 November 2012 to chart the course of the new Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities for the period 2013 to 2022. They were joined by representatives of civil society organizations, including...

In recent months, a debate has flared in academic and philanthropy circles around the extent to which the human rights framework can serve to challenge rising economic inequality. Naysayers can be found on different sides of the ideological spectrum. Some, such as Yale historian Samuel Moyn, argue that the...

Universal basic income refers to unconditional cash transfers to everyone in a society regardless of their income, employment status, job search, or other key criteria. The concept differs from traditional forms of social protection, which tend to provide income support or services to people experiencing specific contingencies, i.e., due...

Governments, skills development institutions, employers and other stakeholders – including workers’ organizations and those of persons with disabilities – have a role in promoting a positive environment that allows persons with disabilities to be fully productive in the workplace. Examples from around the world demonstrate how disability-inclusive apprenticeships and...

Around the world, there are between 93 million and 150 million children and adolescents with disabilities. An estimated 80% live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where 80% of persons with disabilities live below the poverty line. While we know that adolescents with disabilities are far more likely than...

Around the world, there are between 93 million and 150 million children and adolescents living with disabilities. Most of those children (80%) live in the global South, where 80% of persons with disabilities live below the poverty line. Children and adolescents with disabilities are far more likely than their...

The definition of child vulnerability used in Kenya’s social protection sector was shaped in the early 2000s, when policymakers noted an increasing number of orphans as a consequence of the AIDS pandemic and developed the National Plan of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC). Kenya’s Cash Transfer for...

In the decade since the 2008 global economic crisis, fiscal austerity has become the new normal. In the name of fiscal discipline, governments in more than two-thirds of countries throughout the world have enacted drastic austerity measures like severe public expenditure cuts, regressive tax changes, and labor market and...

The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), recently released a new report, Strengthening Social Protection for Persons with Disabilities in Arab Countries. According to the most recent data collected by ESCWA, the disability prevalence rate in the Arab region is around 2.9 percent. This number is expected...

Girls’ rights are human rights. Yet, millions of girls continue to struggle to claim their rights. Girls are disproportionally disadvantaged in education, health, work and family life – particularly in the world’s poorest countries. When factors like poverty, ethnicity or disability intersect and where gender stereotyping and unequal power...