Three Things You Should Know About The Upcoming Global Disability Summit!

We are counting down to the Global Disability Summit, happening in February 2022. 
With less than eight years to go before we reach the target year for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the Global Disability Summit in 2022 (GDS22) will promote actions to increase inclusiveness and equality in line with the principle of ‘Leave No One Behind’ (LNOB) and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

1.    What are the THEMES of the Summit?

The vision for the GDS is ‘Promoting Equality‘, including fighting against stigmatisation and discrimination. The first overarching theme of the Summit is the Meaningful engagement of persons with disabilities through their representative organisations, as this is key to fulfilling the rights of persons with disabilities. Furthermore, as societies and countries recover from COVID-19 and prepare for the next crisis, such as a climate-related crisis or a new pandemic, they must put in place systems that will ensure inclusion rather than exclusion of persons with disabilities. This will be the topic of the second overarching theme for the Summit Building back better and more inclusive after COVID-19. 

The themes have been selected based on input from different stakeholders, as well as an analysis of elements from the Global Disability Summit in London (2018) that should be strengthened. The selected themes are: 

1. Strengthening engagement with Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) in particular in the Global South
2. Inclusive education
3. Inclusive livelihoods and social protection
4. Inclusive health
5. Inclusion in situations of conflict and crisis, including climate change 

Gender will be a cross-cutting theme. 

2.    How can YOU participate?

By Registering For One of Our Events

• The Summit will be held fully online, hence participation is welcome as broadly as possible. You can pre-register on our website HERE. 
• You can also participate by attending one of the events preceding the GDS. We are holding a Youth Summit, you can register HERE, and a Civil Society Forum, you can register HERE. 
• Finally, we are promoting Regional Summit, to capitalize on the momentum created by the GDS and to promote Region-specific dialogue. You can find more information on Regional Summits. 

By Giving Us Your Opinion

For the Civil Society Forum, we want to hear the perspectives of persons with disabilities on themes, topics for discussions, speakers, etc.
If you are a civil society member, please fill out our form by December 3, 2021: https://www.globaldisabilitysummit.org/pages/we-want-your-views-for-the-civil-society-forum 
AND help us spread the word! Share with your networks!

By Engaging With Your Local Government

As advocates for disability inclusion, you can play an important role by getting your Government involved ahead of the Global Disability Summit. How can you do this? 

• Our partner member, the European Disability Forum, has created an excellent toolkit for advocacy. You can download it from here:
  https://www.edf-feph.org/get-your-government-involved-in-the-global-disability-summit/
• You can also advocate for your Government to make a commitment ahead of the Global Disability Summit. A full “menu” for commitment-making is available on our website:
  https://www.globaldisabilitysummit.org/blogs/the-menu-of-commitments-for-the-global-disability-summit-is-online 

3.    What If I Want To Get Involved and Host a Side-Event? 

While we still have not defined a full program for the two-days, we are here to listen to your views and engage with you ahead of this exciting event. Now you can apply to host side events! All information you can find on Side Events. If you still have questions and want to further engage, please contact the GDS Secretariat Team at summit@ida-secretariat.org.