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In this side event, speakers representing a variety of perspectives discussed impacts of national, regional and international disability strategies and action plans and what determine the success of their implementation. The speakers shared experiences of working with indicators, achievements and challenges.
European Commissioner of Equality, Helena Dalli, emphasized in her opening speech the importance of using and developing data for the monitoring processes and that joining our forces with civil society is essential.
Gunta Anca, vice President of the European Disability Forum, stressed the importance of resources in a broad sense, for example human resources and platforms for discussing how implementation progress. Several models for active and meaningful involvement of persons with disabilities was described.
The importance of an intersectional approach to the variety of needs was underlined. Monjurul Kabir who is Senior Global Adviser in the area of Gender Equality and Disability Inclusion at UN Women, mentioned the impact of the UN Disability Inclusion strategy in that an increasing numbers of UN Women agencies report data on disability inclusion. Also that inclusion management, for example understanding of accessibility in the leadership of gender equality programmes and initiatives, is important.
Ambassador Anna-Karin Enestrom, Permanent Representative of Sweden to the UN, stated in her closing remarks that even if the strategies are on different levels, they interconnect and share features such as the cross-sector governance and intersectional approach and that persons with disabilities shall be involved in meaningful ways in all matters that concern them.
The event was hosted by the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the UN and co-hosted by the Delegation of the European Union to the UN and the European Disability Forum and moderated by Malin Ekman Aldén, Director General, the Swedish Agency for Participation.
Watch LIVE the event on the UN WebTV:
The Impact of Disability Strategies (COSP16 Side Event) | UN Web TV
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Source: Permanent Mission of Sweden to the UN