As part of efforts to achieve economic empowerment of persons with disabilities, ESCWA, in cooperation with the League of Arab States (LAS) and member States, is preparing an Arab roadmap for 2027-2045 to include stakeholders in the implementation of relevant economic goals and contribute to the objectives of Arab Vision 2045: Realizing hope through thought, will and action.
On 1 October, ESCWA held a virtual regional preparatory meeting for the Intersessional Group of Experts on Disability (IGED) to discuss the draft roadmap and include their feedback before presenting it to member States at the seventeenth session of the Committee on Social Development next January and then to the LAS Council of Arab Ministers for Social Affairs for adoption.
IGED was established in 2016 and is comprised of decision makers and disability inclusion experts from Arab countries who regularly meet and exchange expertise on law and policy development and on how to come up with solutions to include and empower persons with disabilities in their societies.
While national measures are essential for implementing and amending legislation, the regional roadmap seeks to provide a common framework for addressing shared cross-border challenges, such as the skills mismatch across regional labour markets and the reliance on imported assistive technologies and their high cost. This regional framework seeks to facilitate the exchange of best practices and lessons learned among member States, promote alignment on standardized methodologies for data collection and definitions, and serve as a critical tool for resource mobilization and strengthening collective advocacy at the international level.
