World Leaders join Together for Global Disability Summit 2022

Bringing together governments, businesses, development professionals, and Organisations for People with Disabilities (OPDs), the Global Disability Summit is a pivotal moment for the world to commit to change and do more to include people with disabilities.

This is the second-ever global summit on strengthening the inclusion of people with disabilities and it will build on the progress made in the wake of the first Global Disability Summit in London in 2018. Throughout the Summit, more than 1,544 new commitments to disability rights will be announced by organisations and governments in more than 150 countries.

The number of people with disabilities is estimated to be around 15% of the world’s population, around one billion people, and 80% live in low- and middle-income countries. Despite this, millions of people with disabilities still face stigma, discrimination, and barriers to full-participation in society. People with disabilities have also disproportionately been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his welcome video to the Summit, the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, said, “I am pleased to be co-hosting the Global Disability Summit together with the President of Ghana and the International Disability Alliance. With less than eight years to go before the world is to reach the Sustainable Development Goals, we must ensure that people with disabilities are able to take part in social and economic development on an equal footing with society at large”.  

President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said, “Governments have a solemn obligation to commit to building an inclusive society in which every citizen has the opportunity to develop his or her God-given talent to the fullest. The circumstances of one’s birth cannot and must not be a barrier to any citizen’s participation in - and their benefit from - the process of national development”.

Along with the Prime Ministers of Ghana and Norway, representatives from more than 15 governments will be speaking at the summit and making commitments. International organisations that will be represented include the World Health Organization, the United Nations, UNICEF, USAID, UNHCR, the Global Partnership for Education, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Save the Children, the Valuable 500, and the International Labour Organization.

Anyone can take part in the Summit, and more information along with the up-to-date agenda can be found on GDS2022.

For updates and live announcements follow us on Twitter at @GDS_Disability, #CommitToChange and #GDS2022.