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Civil Society Reference Group

At the first Global Disability Summit in 2018, a Civil Society Reference Group was established to coordinate inputs from civil society and DPOs. The practice will be continued for future Summits.

The Civil Society Reference Group (henceforth referred to as CSRG) aims to ensure the meaningful participation of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), in all their diversity, in the build-up to the new Summit the GDS itself, and its follow-up. The CSRG will also ensure that OPDs are meaningfully involved in the Summit and participate in the Civil Society Forum, through this CSRG. In addition, the CSRG will ensure appropriate representation by wider civil society, in particular organisations allied to the disability movement.

The current membership of the core CSRG for the GDS22 is as follows:

  1. International Disability Alliance
  2. Atlas Alliance
  3. Disabled People’s Organisation Denmark
  4. World Federation of the Deafblind
  5. European Disability Forum
  6. International Disability and Development Consortium
  7. African Disability Forum
  8. (to be identified) OPD from the co-host country

Roles of the civil society reference group
The roles of the CSRG include:

  1. Ensuring collaboration and coordination amongst the different civil society actors, including OPDs with an interest in the Summit;
  2. Ensuring the leadership of OPDs and visibility during the Summit, in line with the CRPD;
  3. Providing the Government of Norway with a coordinated way of accessing a diverse range of expertise, perspectives, and knowledge from across civil society including OPDs;
  4. Providing strategic input and direction during the planning of the Summit, for example supporting the development of commitments and feeding into the accountability mechanisms;
  5. Providing a link to organisations and networks based in low and middle-income countries to ensure that the Summit reflects the realities and voice of persons with disabilities living in those countries;
  6. Sharing information amongst the different networks and organisations involved in the Summit to ensure effective and co-ordinated inputs;
  7. Supporting the planning, coordination, and delivery of the Civil Society Forum which will take place the day before the main Summit;
  8. After the Summit, in line with the accountability mechanism designed for the Summit, play a role as appropriate in the effective follow-up from the Summit and holding those who have made commitments to account. A Terms of References (ToRs) for this involvement will be drafted at a later date. The individuals involved in the follow-up do not necessarily need to be the same people that are involved in the CSRG preparations group.