Roundtables - The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Roundtable (WUF13)

Okay, we'll be starting now, so please do all take your seats.
And just so you know, during the session, we will have interventions in different languages, so please do take a headset in front of you, and if you don't have one, you can ask one of the volunteers to provide one.
Okay Okay.
Hello everybody.
Welcome to the Round table on Persons with Disabilities titled Beyond Accessibility, Realizing the Right to adequate housing for all.
My name is Mikaela Patrick, and I'm head of Research and delivery at the Global Disability Innovation Hub.
I'm your moderator for today's session.
So before we begin, I just want to thank our host country, the Republic of Azerbijan and UN Habitat for hosting us here in Baku during the World Urban Forum and demonstrating such strong commitments to accessibility throughout the forum.
It's a great start to the discussion we're going to have today.
Before I begin, I would just share some practical details and accessibility considerations.
We have interpretation in all six UN languages and live streaming online via UN web TV.
We also have sign language interpretation.
If I can please ask all speakers and participants when speaking to say your name before speaking and to always use the microphones to ensure that everyone can hear you.
And please do speak slowly to support the interpreters.
I'd like to give a special welcome to everyone who is joining us online as well around the world.
So we're delighted to have you with us.
I will also throughout the session, need to be doing some timekeeping to make sure we maximize our time during the session today and give the floor to as many speakers as possible.
I have a few minutes now just to set the scene a little bit before I bring in our opening remarks.
We're here today to discuss what's needed to realize the right to adequate housing for persons with disabilities as we cannot realize housing for all without inclusive and accessible solutions.
We want this session to be ambitious, to look forward, to look beyond accessibility to what it means to truly realize inclusive housing and inclusive cities for all.
In commitment to an inclusive process, this roundtable on persons with disabilities has been co designed through substantive consultations with organizations of persons with disabilities, OPDs and diverse stakeholders that are advancing the rights of persons with disabilities worldwide.
The roundtable will serve as a platform to translate global commitments into local action and the transition to the theme of beyond accessibility reflects a shift from a view of inclusion as merely physical access or regulatory compliance to embracing it as a holistic principle that informs urban policy, design, and governance.
So throughout today, we'll be starting the session with some stock taking before moving to a more open dialogue that looks towards the future and a more inclusive feature for all.
So as a starting point, we have global mandates in place that support inclusive and accessible housing in cities.
We have the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities through the general principles, through Article 9 on accessibility, through Article 19 on living independently, and Article 28 on adequate standards of living.
We also have the New Urban Agenda and the SDGs, in particular, SDG 11 that set the frameworks that we need to ensure that at a global level, we are prioritizing accessibility and inclusion.
We also have the new UN disability inclusion strategy, which in particular, I want to highlight the ambition to strengthen the UN system's engagement with OPDs.
We're really at an important moment today because we're in the midterm review of the new Urban agenda, as well as the review and reporting on SDG 11.
This is a really important time to really take stock of where we're at and what we still need to be doing.
I also just want to briefly recognize the commitment in action here today in Baku.
This is the first World Urban forum where the accessibility strategy for the forum has been published publicly ahead of the forum.
It's also the second World Urban Forum to host the Accessibility 2030 Pavilion within the Urban Expo, which is a dedicated space to accessibility and disability inclusion within the World Urban Forum.
We are also working with the UN Habitat Strategic Plan for 2026 to 2029, where this renewed framework offers opportunities to embed accessibility and universal design across the strategic priorities of the plan, and that is what is informing our guiding questions for our discussion today.
But what we really need to look at today also is what's missing? What do we truly need to drive change and ensure urban solutions are inclusive and accessible, and how do we translate global mandates into local action? Our objectives today are as follows.
One, to identify critical gaps in municipal level inclusive design policies and develop strategies to integrate universal design standards, secure tenure, and anti discrimination protections into the delivery of housing and basic services for all.
Secondly, to showcase scalable, community led and multi stakeholder solutions that successfully provide safe and inclusive housing and basic services for persons with disabilities in complex environments, such as informal settlements and post disaster areas.
Thirdly, we'd like to explore available and affordable building technologies and financing models that reduce the cost of safe, accessible, and resilient homes while supporting assistive mobility needs and assistive technology needs.
We want to highlight financial and social protection measures that link climate related urban recovery to disability inclusive infrastructure and essential services.
Last but not least, we want to promote the use of disability deggregated data to align urban monitoring with SDG 11 reporting and CRPD implementation in municipalities, strengthening accountability and policy coherence.
Just to end, the session today will also be informing the Baku call to action, making sure that disability inclusion and accessibility will be mainstreamed across urban solutions.
So for our session today, we'll begin with some opening remarks and then move into a panel discussion with guiding questions that are informed by the UN Habitat Strategic Plan.
We will then have a short break, and then we will move into a more open dialogue where we'll be taking questions from the floor, as well as continued discussions with all of our speakers.
So I would firstly like to just take a moment now to welcome all of our speakers, Your Excellencies, our colleagues, partners from around the world that have joined us here today.
And I would like to start with our opening remarks by inviting Heba Grass, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to deliver virtual opening remarks.
And lived experience at the center of this dialogue.
Housing is not simply a physical structure.
It is the foundation of dignity, autonomy, safety, and participation in community life.
Yet, for millions of persons with disabilities around the world, adequate housing remains out of reach, not because of individual impairments, but because cities and systems continue to be designed without us in mind.
Despite the clear obligations set out in the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, particularly Article 9 and 19, too many urban environments still treat accessibility as an afterthought or as a charitable add on.
This reactive approach, retrofitting, exceptions, and reasonable accommodation has proven insufficient.
It is costly, exclusionary, and fundamentally incompatible with equality.
What we need and what this session rightly calls for is a decisive shift towards universal design as a core principle of urban development.
Persons with disabilities are disproportionately affected by housing insecurity, displacement, climate related disasters, and rising urban poverty.
These impacts are not accidental.
They are the result of systemic discrimination embedded in planning, financing, and governance decisions.
In informal settlements, post disaster context and climate vulnerable areas, exclusion from accessible housing and basic services often become a life threatening risk.
Shock, responsive, social protection and inclusive recovery must therefore be understood not as a technical solution, but as a human rights obligation.
I welcome the alignment of this round table with the UN Habitat Strategic Plan, 2026, 2029, and the midterm review of the new urban agenda.
These processes present a critical opportunity to close the persistent implementation gap between global commitment and rot realities.
Embedding disability inclusion across housing, infrastructure, finance, and data systems ensure that inclusion is not siloed, but becomes a defining feature of resilient and sustainable cities.
Equally important is how this work is done.
The meaningful participation of organizations of persons with disabilities is not an option.
It is a legal requirement under CRPD Article 4 0.3 and elaborated in general comment number seven.
OPDs must move beyond consultative roads to positions of leadership and co design, shaping policies, defining indicators, conducting accessibility audits, and holding institutions accountable.
Nothing about us without us must be reflected not only in words, but in governance, structures, and resource allocation.
Finally, reliable disability disaggregated data is essential.
Without it, progress on SDG 11 remains incomplete and accountability remains weak.
Cities that cannot see persons with disabilities in their data will continue to exclude them in practice.
I hope today's discussion contributes concrete actionable recommendations to the Baja Code to action and help ensure that recovery, development, and urban growth prioritize the rights, safety, and dignity of all residents without exception.
I thank you.
Thank you so much for joining us today and thank you for your remarks.
I'd now like to welcome Excellency El Nara Ansari, the Director of DOST Inclusive Development and Creativity Center at the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Government of Azerbijan.
Please, over to you.
The Signish guests, ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure and honor to welcome you today's round table discussion organized within the framework of the B 13.
On behalf of the Dost Inclusive Development and Creativity Center under the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Azerbian, I would like to express our sincere appreciation to participants, partners, and experts joining us for this important dialogue.
Today's discussion beyond accessibility, realizing the right to adequate housing for all addresses one of the key priorities of inclusive and sustainable urban development, ensuring that persons with disability can fully enjoy the rights to adequate housing, independent living, and equal participation in society.
Today, all countries share a common responsibility to ensure that our cities are not only growing, developing, but also becoming accessible, inclusive, and comfortable for all.
In Azerbian, the protection of the rights and social well being of persons with disability is one of the key priorities in state policy.
Since joining the UN Convention on the Rights of persons with disability in 2008, Azerbian has carried out significant reforms aimed at aligning national legislation with the international standards and moving from a medical approach to the social model of disability.
An important step in this condition was the adoption of the law in the rights of the persons with disability in 2018.
This law created a strong legal basis for ensuring equal rights, rehabilitation, employment, opportunities, and social inclusion.
Allow me to highlight several important achievements.
First, Azerbjan has introduced a fully electronic and contacted disability assessment system.
Through the digital disability subsystem, medical information is processed electronically.
Making the process more transparent, efficient, and objective.
Azerbajan is among the first countries in the region to implement such a system.
At the same time, social benefits are now assigned proactively without requiring citizen to submit applications and collect other documents.
This proactive approach to social services has already received international recognition and is being studied by other countries.
Second, we're actively promoting the concept of inclusive and accessible cities.
Accessibility means much more than physical infrastructure.
It means equal participation in all areas of life.
The Rules on Reasonable Accommodation of Infrastructure adopted in 2021 require both public and private institution to ensure accessibility in transport, communication, culture, and public services.
In addition, workplace standards for persons with disability were introduced in 2019 together with the digital system that support inclusive employment and help monitor accommodation needs in the labor market.
Third, Azerbsan is implementing innovative inclusion initiatives through the Do Center for Inclusive Development and creativity, established on the initiative of the first Vice President of our Republic, miss Mary Pa Liva.
The center is successful example of universal design and inclusivity opportunity.
Accessibility, psychosocial support, and sign language services are all integrated in the one environment.
Its philosophy is simple.
Visibility is not a limitation, it's a different form of potential.
Approximately 1,000 individuals have improved their skills, expressed their creativity, and transformed their talents into economic opportunities.
Importantly, this model is now expanding to the regions of the Azerbigion including Ismaili and Karabakh region of our country, ensuring that inclusion reaches every part of the country.
Azerban's inclusive initiatives are also becoming more visible internationally.
Our beneficiaries have represented our country at major international platforms and events.
For example, South Korea, Malaysia, United Nations Office in Geneva, and Expo 2025 in Japan.
This experience clearly show that inclusion is also about visibility, participation, and equal representative at all global level.
Our work is fully aligned with the United Nations sustainable development goals, especially in the areas of quality education, decent work, reduce inequalities, and sustainable cities.
Inclusion is a practical implementation of the principle leaving no one behind.
Building inclusive cities is not only policy choice.
It's a moral responsibility, an important past towards sustainable development.
When we remove barriers for persons with disability, we create better cities for everyone.
Let us work together so that inclusivity becomes not an exception, but universal standard.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you so much for your remarks and it's fantastic to hear what is happening here in Azerbijan as a leader in driving more inclusive cities.
I was particularly struck by your comment about taking a more holistic approach to inclusive cities and it's fantastic to see how you're working on this and we look forward to hearing more throughout the discussion.
I would now like to introduce our panel discussion.
During our panel discussion, we'll be hearing from eight speakers who will be invited to respond to a specific guiding question that is set by the concept note of the roundtable on persons with disabilities.
I will be introducing our speakers individually as I ask them their question.
I'm going to dive straight in in the interest of time, and I'm going to go straight to our first panelist who I would like to introduce as Federico Battista Poitier, who is the Manager of Policies and Programs on Accessibility at United Cities and local governments.
So the UN Habitat Strategic Plan 2026 to 2029 commits to inclusive housing, resilient infrastructure, and participatory governance.
Realizing these priorities demands local translation and accountability.
So the question is, what concrete policy mechanisms can municipal governments implement to move universal design from a voluntary guideline to a mandatory process within urban systems in full alignment with CRPD principles.
You'll have about 3 minutes for your response, and I may have to cut you off if you go over.
Over to you, Federico.
Thank you, Mikaela.
I was going to ask you how much time I have.
Just a quick run by in case you can't see me from far away or wherever you're sitting.
I'm a tall mulatto man.
I'm wearing braids today and I have this Georgian jacket that people have been saying looks really nice.
I'm happy to be here.
I'm from the United States and local governments.
To give you just a short part, it's a really big municipal movement that represents over 250,000 municipalities around the world.
We're really transferring these global agendas and bringing them back to the impact level, which is local.
Go into your question on these concrete policy mechanisms, uh, to simplify it, and I'll detail a little bit what this means, you know, the CRPD is that framework.
So the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is that framework.
But what we're really working at in UCLG is do municipalities understand how that framework translates to the local level, to what they're doing day to day and the different programs and services that each of us have the right to use.
So going into that, you know, one of the outcomes that we had in one of our congresses was to support a mechanism, and this is the first mechanism that I'll discuss to really bring the CRPD to the local level.
So in 2019, we created this community of practice on local and regional governments around the world.
And this was about setting the priority not only for the local and regional governments, but also for ourselves as an institution.
So what does the municipal movement look like with accessibility at the heart of it? So if we're talking about equity in care, equity in public service provision, are those things looking at the CRPD, like the Special Reeur mentioned, on the general comments seven, looking strategically at Article 9 and distinct articles and looking at them in the indicator framework, really translating that.
This community of practice really delves in and first looks at what municipalities are challenged with both regionally, but also those global challenges that many municipalities are having.
Just to give an example, one of the big challenges is that the OPD structures and some municipalities are not organized enough to really engage at a uh, the municipality and the governance.
Sometimes it's looking at how do we support OPD engagement at the municipalities.
This has been one of the key frameworks.
Another one that was really designed a lot of the capacity building that happens within that community of practice is the cities for all global compacting campaign, which really translates the CRPD along with other frameworks like the WHO's age friendly cities and communities framework.
And the indicators in the sustainable development goals and the urban agenda that reference persons with disabilities and older persons.
I reference older persons because they're a group that also has some similarities, although not exact with persons with disabilities and 40% of older persons also identify with a disability.
Just to give a last point, we're enhancing these things moving forward and two weeks ago and with strategic support also from our partners, particularly the BM Zed, so the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation, is developing a pathway through some universal guidelines on a local inclusion agenda, which I'm happy to say is being co created not only with municipalities, but organizations of persons with disabilities, UN agencies and others.
This will represent not the framework, but a stepping stone looking at having a situation analysis for the municipality and saying, where do we go from here? Because it's not about the final product, although that is really great, but it's about that journey.
Accessibility is a journey.
The inclusion of persons with disabilities and public governance is a journey and having systems that can make adequate housing a reality, can make inclusive societies a reality is a journey.
Putting these into indicator frameworks that translate the human rights framework into local programs and policies is what we see as the future and we would love to work together with all of you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Federica.
Of course, I've known your work for a long time, but it's always fantastic to hear you speak.
I think one of the overarching messages around Wolf is how we translate global commitment into local action.
I think this is so exemplary of that in terms of what do we really need to support municipalities, to support cities to drive inclusion? Because it's not necessarily that the appetite isn't there, but we need those concrete mechanisms.
And as you say, it's a journey.
It's not necessarily easy, but through these shared commitments, working together, I truly believe we can get there.
So I'll now introduce our second speaker as Ouf Chowdhry, the Senior Project Officer from the National Institute of Urban Affairs in India.
So persons with disabilities face systemic exclusion from adequate housing and services, particularly in informal settlements and climate vulnerable contexts.
So beyond physical accessibility, what specific regulatory reforms and financing tools are needed to guarantee adequate housing for persons with disabilities in complex urban environments.
Over to you Osv.
Yeah.
Thank you for the question, Mikaela.
First of all, thank you to the Republic of Azerbijan for having us to UN Habitat for organizing the Rytable and GDA for the excellence of putting together the show here.
Your Excellency, delegates and everybody in attendance, let me give you a little context of what is it that we're working with.
India is a country of a little over 1 billion people.
And if you just take the gross numbers, 15% of that is a lot of people.
It's a country in itself, and that's the number of persons with disability that you're talking about.
The gravity of the problem is much bigger than we think of.
I think housing is one of the biggest things that we need to focus on, which is what the delegation from Indy is also focusing on.
We're trying to house 1 billion dreams, and that's going to be the task for the next five years to look at.
However, let me preface this by saying that for persons with disability, the greatest barrier to adequate housing is not their disability.
It is the way our cities are planned, designed, and governed.
When housing is inaccessible, the consequences are profound.
A person may have a house, a person may have access to water, but during distress, during disasters, they may or may not be able to evacuate themselves, may or may not be able to find a shelter close by health care and livelihood.
Designing good houses is quintessential to a good quality of life for everybody, including persons with disability.
The commitment that India has towards disability is anchored from our Rights of Persons with Disability Act of 2016, and subsequently, we have a lot of guidelines and standards for B form that we are following, including the National Building Code.
These instruments align with our domestic framework with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability and establish accessibility as a legal obligation rather than a design preference.
Now, throwing a little light on what we are doing for the housing, and then I'm going to transition over to what we can do more.
At the program level, the flagship housing program scheme, which is Bran three Abs ja, which loosely translates to Prime Minister's housing program has currently more than 125 million urban houses that were built in the last five years.
So that is an unbelievably large number that we have been able to meet, and we do plan to have 97 million more in the next five to ten years.
So again, steep targets that we have set for ourselves.
But those numbers will mean nothing if we can't make it accessible for everyone.
There is a quintessential need to make sure that the housing design and the housing stock is accessible to everyone, including persons with disability.
As Federico mentioned, elderly individuals are also part of the story that we are trying to tell.
Now, our experience working on persons with disability in India across different cities, and might I highlight the work that we have done with GDI Hub in Barray as well, tells us there are four things to consider before we initiate the next phase of the work in housing.
First and foremost is universal design standards should be mandatory in all publicly financed housing.
That's number one.
Informal settle upgrading and post disaster reconstruction also have to follow suit as well.
Now, in that light, the work that we have done with UN Habitat in India, we have a digital toolkit which I will probably reflect on later, was co developed with UN OIC and UN Habitat to help practitioners understand how to prioritize accessibility in bill form.
The second point that I would like to emphasize on is dedicated financial support through retrofitting grants, additional subsidies and concessional credit to cover the cost of home adaptations for persons with disability.
Thirdly, participation and integration is key.
We need to hear more from persons with disability.
We need to involve OPDs in the planning process of creating better homes.
The fourth and the most important bit of all is disability disaggregated data.
We need to know who we are building for and where they are and what their needs are.
So over the years, India has seen a lot of transformative impact in the work that we have done with community participation.
The SRGs and local self government have been effective in addressing the needs of persons with disability, but there is much that we need to attend.
In that sense, accessibility should not be treated as a specialized feature for a few, but as a universal standard that benefits everyone, including older persons, children, caregivers and community facing climate and disaster risks.
Forums like these reaffirm our commitment to working with all partners to build cities where every person, regardless of their ability, their communities can live safely, participate fully, and thrive with dignity.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I think two takeaways for me, there were really the importance of ensuring resilience for our populations at large, but especially our population of persons with disabilities and thinking about developing solutions at scale and making sure that those solutions are inclusive.
I'll now move to our third speaker and it's my pleasure to introduce Ahmed Ganm, the Senior Technical Hub coordinator from the UN Global Disability Fund.
While inclusive innovations exist, they often remain expensive and isolated pilots due to a lack of sustainable investment and cross sector partnerships.
How can we restructure relationships among developers, investors, and OPDs to bridge the financing gap and scale innovations that deliver affordable, accessible and inclusive infrastructure and services.
Over to you, Ahmed.
Thank you.
Thank you everyone for this opportunity.
My name is Ahmad Gram.
I'm from Middle East and I wear a gray suit, so I'm glad to be here with you.
I think that it's very important to understand that it's not a financing gap, it's a financing structure gap.
That means that we don't lack of innovation.
Our colleague panelst have discussing and we have been discussing a lot about innovation, evidence, data and yes, we need more of that, but we have a lot of that.
The problem is usually that we have problem in financing architecture where the financing usually are not covering disability as a main part of the work rather than a good to have added on sometime and sometimes it's not even included.
The main issue here that we need to ensure that we have, it's not about creating a track for financing for disability because usually if you do that, we have seen that this will make a burden of proof of concept, a burden of coordination usually on this track.
And when there are debtrization, usually happen as we are seeing now in development assistance, for example, disability will be the first to lose.
Without restructuring our financing to ensure that disability is integrated part of this financing, this is it's a direction problem, not a volume problem.
So how we can do that, in our opinion and our work in global disability Fund and the work that we are doing now in resilience and inclusive city hub with our partner, we have seen that there are a model that we can follow to encourage this kind of full mainstreaming of disability.
First, the influencing step.
I think you can see that it's a very simplistic in three steps.
The first is influencing how to create a small fund that is influence mainstreaming funds that is already exist.
Let's see the evidence and discussions that we have.
If you have an infrastructure that happened in one country and you can influence this infrastructure fund with a small fund at the beginning to ensure the fund itself from the inside integrated disability and learn how disability is integrated and highlight the market failure that could happen.
This could be the first system.
However, if we stop here, we will have a buyout and usually we know that buyout is a bout.
It's not impacting the system.
To move, we need a catalytic a change.
The cathartic change happen usually when the fund itself are allocating part of its budget to some fund specifically for disability.
The second move is that we need to stop the financing just for disability as a separate track and integrate in the financing itself.
However, this is also not enough because if we didn't do the third step, which is integrating disability fund within the national agenda, within the national budget, usually we will not never have a systematic change on the long run.
It's not only about creating pilots or creating evidence.
It's how we ensure that this evidence will make the system will prove that disability inclusion is not only right.
It's also something that we need to have because it's mostly cost efficient and it's benefiting the economy in general.
This is the three steps that we need to take in order to do that.
However, we have non negotiable condition.
OBD participation is a must.
As the associate Rapporteur was saying, OBD participation is not only a right.
It's also we have seen from the experience that it's make the contribution and the investment much more efficient when we have the OBD because they are coming with a solution, they are coming with experience.
They are coming with shortcuts that could save us a lot of time efforts if we are having this partnership and this partnership should also be part of the design of the decision making, not only an advisory design or advocacy design, but part of the decision making, which means that OBD needs to be partner of this kind of discussion at national and local level.
That's why localization that our panelists is talking about is very important because usually the meaning of all participation happen at local level rather than national level.
The last thing that I will say that as we are moving to the end of the W Urban forum with all thanks to the organizer about it, we need also to ensure that we remember all these commitment that we are keep talking about and put it inside.
It's very important to ensure that make disability inclusive design a condition for program support.
We need to ensure that we have disability disaggregated data as our colleague that is tracking the investment, it's related to SEDG 11.
We need also to ensure that we have a clear guidance for municipality and city how to engage with OBD and how to have an inclusive sensitive budgeting in their work.
With all the work that we are doing, we need to ensure that every step we are taking lead to systemic change, lead to capabilities of the local and national to lead and to carry on this change with their own budget, with their own planning, and with their own decision.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Ahmed and two things really struck me there.
One was about the importance of moving towards catalytic change and the second is really thinking about who is part of decision making.
I think that the Rich Hub initiative really is going to be groundbreaking in transforming this.
Okay, so it's my pleasure to introduce our next speaker, Professor Floyd Morris, the Director of the Center for Disability Studies at the University of West Indies.
Welcome.
Your question is as follows.
In the face of intensifying climate related emergencies, urban emergencies in particular, how can shock responsive social protection and financial tools be designed to ensure that urban climate recovery prioritizes housing and service accessibility for persons with disabilities.
Over to you, Professor Floyd.
Beautiful city of Baku and the wonderful reception and hospitality of the people of this country.
This question is very interesting and timely within the context of the fact that Jamaica, which I'm from, just experience a category five hurricane, which is regarded as one of the most catastrophic hurricanes to have landed in any country in recent times.
And it had profound impact on the contrary, wiping out up to 56% of our gross domestic product as the last estimate indicated.
The data is pointing coming from the World Meteorological Office that climate change is a reality and we will be having more storms and other natropgenic situations like Hurricane Melissa that devastated Jamaica.
The question is very important, how we design these shock response social protection and financial systems to facilitate the housing and accessibility needs of persons with disabilities.
I want to start out by indicating that we must ensure that we develop accurate data and tracking mechanisms that will be able to identify persons with disabilities in their communities.
It is very important that societies in formulating and fashioning their social protection and financial systems in the context of disaster management that you know where your vulnerable population are to be found.
And so once you have that database and that tracking mechanism in place and there is a disaster, whether it is anthropogenic or it's natropgenic, you have a situation where you can send out your assessment teams to identify where persons with disabilities are and what are their immediate needs.
Upon identifying the needs of these individuals, you are now able to put together what support is to be provided for these individuals? The support can come in terms of cash grants to these individuals.
It can also come in form of kind.
How is it that we formulate our emergency teams to make sure that they pay attention and prioritize persons with disabilities whose homes have been devastated because of wind or as a result of flooding or fire.
And in that response, you have to make sure that your disaster team participate in building back better and stronger those houses, shelter of persons with disabilities that have been affected, utilizing the social protection mechanism and financial systems that you would have put in place.
And in doing so, you would ensure that persons with disabilities in the reconstruction of their houses, for example, the necessary guidelines, the necessary building systems are built with resilience mechanisms in place so that they can withstand any future disaster.
I believe that with those three to four Suggestion.
It would have profound implications for making sure that in this era of climate change, persons with disabilities receive adequate protection and support from the state in these troubling times.
Thank you for Professor Morris for, I think, first of all, bringing the immediate urgency of what we're discussing so clearly to the table.
Then I think two points I took from what you said is one that systems ultimately need to serve the needs of persons with disabilities, systems and services, and the importance of accurate and timely data, which brings us very nicely to our next speakers and our next question.
So Data is undoubtedly incredibly important and so important that we will have two speakers to respond to this question.
It is my pleasure to introduce A Khalil, the Chairman of the Independent Living Center for People with Disability in Azerbijan who will deliver his remarks in Azerbijani, so please do use your headset.
We will also hear from doctor Barbara Holtmann, the Technical Director at Fixed Africa and President of the Board of the International Center for the Prevention of Crime in Montreal.
I will go to Ad first, if that's okay.
So reliable disability disaggregated data is a core missing link in tracking progress on SDG 11 and CRPD commitments.
So how can urban observatories, SDG 11 reporting, and municipal monitoring systems better capture and effectively utilize disability disaggregated data to inform inclusive urban planning.
Over to you, AV.
Thank you very much.
I'm welcoming all of you to this meeting.
I'm very honored to take part and speak at this round table.
We are talking a lot about the housing accessible and affordable housing, but the main question is this, if we don't measure how can we plan this I think the SDG 11 and nine, the main gap in the implementation of the SDG is reliable and data, the lack of such data.
No data is available, the problem may not be seen and if the problem is not seen, there's no priority in the policy and no budget is allocated and therefore no real change takes place.
The data allocated for the discipline is not only a statistical matter, it's about the matter of justice.
There are so many data are either gathered or superficially gathered, sometimes being misleading.
Only showing the says their settlements, which is not sufficient.
We shouldn't only ask the question if there is pandas, if the pandas is available and adequate, if the person disability can access if he can access social amenities, he has a real access to the in case of emergencies, if the person can be safely evacuated so the data is not only about the adequacy and it shall reflect the real life experience so that there is SDGs may play a vital role in this.
There is a special concern of the role of municipalities and may play in this.
They shall develop methodologies that will assess the outcomes and stakeholders around this.
As I said earlier, there is a law adopted about the disabilities and we view the change and we discuss and take part at different round tables with the government stakeholders and this is a big achievement.
In November last year, as you know, our ombudsman was given a mandate, an independent monitoring mechanism.
Using this mandate, we surveyed different areas as roads and inniity but we have setbacks, but we should address and settle these matters.
Last and data is not a technical matter, but this is a main tool to make things obvious.
Without a reliable data, effective policy is impossible without the inclusive those problems may not reflect the true situation with this municipal monitoring should gather such data, analyze, and make them realizable because inclusive city is not in plans, but also shall manifest itself in the real lives of the ordinary people.
Christine.
Here is a really important question when we're talking about data and that data really must create real change for the people of who we are collecting that data.
I'd now like to pass to doctor Barbara Holtman to also respond to this question and share your insights on the importance of disability desegregated data.
Over to you.
Thanks so much, Mikaela and to our hosts for having us here today.
I think for me, one of the questions that needs to be urgently asked is, how do we value qualitative data versus quantitative data? You asked at the beginning, what's missing? I think one of the things that is very often missing is what doesn't happen, which is almost impossible to collect in quantitative data.
We developed with UN habitat Safer Cities and urban safety monitor, and we developed a continuum that said huge amounts of data measure what we want less of.
Massive amounts less violence, less gun crime, less murder, less violence against women.
But what do we want to put in its place? Why don't we measure that? We need to start measuring the other side of the continuum.
What does it look like when things are fixed? What does it look like when people who have disabilities are fully participating? How do we measure that? How do we get to understand what it is that we're aiming for instead of just less of what's wrong? I think in terms of housing, we have for many generations, very often started with construction.
We start with concrete, which also is an environmentally totally unsound material.
But we start with concrete and then we look at what we can put around it.
But I think if we really want to do something about equality in human settlements for people with disabilities, we need to start listening to the stories and storytelling is something that is so powerful, but to make it as powerful as it should be, we need to give it equal equity in terms of quantitative data.
I want to tell you a very short story to finish and it's about something that didn't happen.
In 2008 in the Kenyan elections, there was huge political violence after the election was finished.
We were working with a school in Coogcho and a woman told me that she heard that the houses were burning in Coregcho.
She had a son who was a quadriplegic and she had to leave him at home every day on his own, in his chair because he couldn't move himself and she couldn't afford any care for him.
When she heard that Kregcho was burning, she ran as fast as she could to get to him.
When she got to her street, she saw that her house had burned down and she fell to the ground in floods of tears.
Then somebody rushed towards her and comforted her and said, You neighbor took your son.
He is okay.
But that incident tells us so much not only about having a disability, but about the caregivers of disabilities and about the way that it's not necessarily the housing infrastructure that matters.
It's the connections, it's the community, it's the knowing each other and the demystification of the other that will eventually make everybody safe.
Thank you.
Thank you, doctor Hoffman.
You're making a new mother emotional over here, but I'll do my best to rein it in.
I think this is so important.
What we're really talking about behind the data is people.
We're talking about human lives, human stories, and how we can all live together on this planet and live together well.
I think that really illustrates it well and our infrastructure, our cities are the stage on which we live those lives.
I now will move to our last question, which again, will have two speakers.
It is my pleasure to introduce Santos Kumar Ruta, the president of the World Blind Union and Sandra Nwira disability inclusion advisor with United Disabled Persons of Kenya.
Our next question is as follows.
True inclusion requires a rights based approach led by those with lived experience.
Meaningful engagement of organizations of persons with disabilities is essential to ensure inclusion throughout design, implementation, and follow up of the World Urban Forum 13 commitments.
OPDs should be recognized as active partners in defining indicators, conducting accessibility audits, and interpreting data in line with the principle of nothing about us without us and the CRPD General Comment number seven.
So the question is as follows, what governance structures can ensure that OPDs move from consultative roles to positions of leadership and co design in sustainable urban development, ensuring that the World Urban Forum 13 commitments lead to long term change and local accountability.
So Santosh, could I please go to you first and could I ask someone to turn on the mic? His Excellency distinguished co panelists, ladies and gentlemen.
I think the question which has been posed to be answered by two of us is the root question that everybody should answer present here.
We have been talking about what beyond accessibility to ensure real inclusion of persons with disabilities.
We have heard many initiatives.
We have heard initiatives, good intentioned initiatives by our governments, local governments, But all these initiatives which have been shared with us even during the course of this round table points to one common issue, and that issue is, where are we? Where are OPDs in the entire process of so called development of policies, so called promoting accessibility, so called efforts to achieve full inclusion.
The answer is we are invisible, we are nowhere.
OPDs are nowhere.
And I'm not just saying it for the sake of argument.
It is a hard reality that we must accept.
What then is the way forward? The way forward is you acknowledge and governments must recognize and make commitment on the basis of the mandate of UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities to have full political participation at all levels right from the planning, execution, monitoring.
When we talk of universal design, we have also to keep in mind that when we say that we will work and develop the infrastructure services based on universal design principles, We have to keep in mind that as we go along, applying the universal design principles, we also are confronted with the changes that take place, with the technological advancements, with the mechanisms put in place and with the manner in which infrastructure is developed services are offered.
So therefore, universal design can never remain static.
It has to be dynamic.
And in order to ensure that the dynamalism the principle of universal design is maintained to ensure inclusivity of persons with disabilities, to guarantee their rights of equality and life with dignity, their right to independent living, we will have to involve, engage, and make real decision maker, the persons with disabilities, OPDs and you have a lot of OPDs right from global level to national level, With respect, I want to say this that one of our co panelists said that we do not find persons with disabilities or OPDs who are well equipped to participate.
I would beg to differ from this observation.
We are capable.
We are competent to participate with you, collaborate with you, and work with you to achieve the ultimate goal of inclusion, life with dignity, a right of independent living for persons with disabilities.
Let us work together and establish a governance structure which recognizes, respects the competence of persons with disabilities as leader in all processes at every level.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much Santosh, for sharing those remarks and I really echo your sentiment that we need the engagement of OPDs the leadership of OPDs across all processes of urban development from the very beginning through to monitoring.
And I think Federico earlier described accessibility as a journey, and I think it is a continual journey that the commitment doesn't end when the building is complete, when the urban plan is done.
We need to make sure that that continual commitment is there and we need to make sure that those fundamental roles for OPDs to be real decision makers are in place.
Sandra, I'd like to come to you now.
Would you like me to repeat the question or you have Peter to intervene? Okay.
I'm going to pass over to Sandra.
Your mic is on.
All right.
Thank you so much, Mikaela and thank you to our hosts for having us.
Just to add on to what Santos has said and to retaliate what most speakers here have said around the importance of meaningful OPD engagement and in the discussions around the urban agenda, and of course, recognizing that we're not yet there in terms of how meaningfully we engage OPD, and maybe some of the interventions that we need to really take in strongly would include.
First, of course, the aspect around governments, having long term plans around capacity building for organizations of persons with disabilities.
This would include in terms of technical support, resourcing, because then we do recognize that leadership can only take place where there's equitable access to information, technical and financial resources, and of course, also the reasonable accommodation that comes with that.
Those long term capacity building plans are therefore necessary Second, we need to talk about how do we institutionalize disability inclusive government governance mechanisms that recognize that legally recognize, you know, um, the role of OPDs within urban advisory and city councils? Um, to go just beyond the consultative processes, but also do they have a very clear mandate with decision making powers and accountability functions that then allows them to go beyond consultative roles.
This, of course, should be called between OPDs and government officials.
Thirdly, also talking about how are we setting aside or how are we reserving representation quotas? Within the urban planning committees that we have within our countries, within the infrastructure and housing boards that we have.
Where's the place of OPD representatives in all of these, decision making bodies that then allows us to be decision makers right from the onset up to the end.
Then again, takes away our roles beyond just consultative.
Again, talking about the participatory budgetary mechanisms that should be there.
But then, of course, then further strengthens accountability and how does that happen when we have dedicated funding streams where OPDs can then be able to prioritize what are their issues when it comes to accessibility and matters inclusion? How do they track those allocations? How are they able to monitor whether this is actually meaningful to persons with disabilities at the various local levels? That's another system.
Amongst the last things would be our accountability frameworks.
Do they allow OPDs to co lead development of indicators, aspects around conducting accessibility audits, reviewing and validating government reports, how we monitor SDGs, of course, and also how we're going to track the commitments at this World Urban Forum.
All of those are just some of the initiatives that we can take to actually ensure that involvement of OPDs goes beyond consultation and we can actually see our fingerprints throughout the whole process.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Sandra and I really like your point about the fact that we need to is so needed and I also really appreciate your practical comments on how we look at ongoing monitoring and tracking the progress on commitments that are made, and this is an incredibly important topic for discussion.
So we now have concluded the first part of our panel discussion.
And we had originally scheduled a break, but due to our late start and the fact that our interpreters will have a hard stop at 5:30, we are going to continue the discussion.
But if you do need to take a break, please do feel free to go ahead and join us back in the room as and when you feel able.
So we're now going to move into a more open dialogue portion of the panel discussion.
So I will first go back to our speakers for any additional reflections or remarks you would like to make in response to your fellow panelists.
But we'd also like to take questions from the floor.
So if I can please ask everyone in the room to think if you have a question that you would like to ask, particularly, I would encourage you to ask the questions of our speakers here of our esteemed panel.
And just as a little bit of guidance to ensure we maximize time for everyone to participate during this session, can we please keep remarks and questions to around 1 minute if possible? I know that's a short amount of time, but let's make sure we give everyone an opportunity to participate because that's so important when we have so many people from all over the world gathered in the room together.
So maybe I'll first look towards our panel.
If anyone would like to make a remark following the discussions that you've heard from your fellow speakers.
We have Santos and then Professor Floyd and then Sandra.
I just wanted to add one thing to our discussion, which is missing.
When we talk of beyond accessibility, we should at least look into and keep in mind three things.
Accessibility, affordability, and safety.
Here I want to raise one very important issue.
These days, you know that electric cars are coming in big way, and the issue of silent car poses a threat to the safety of blind pedestrian.
So This is an issue which relates to our safety, and I think it is an important and integral part of accessibility and inclusiveness.
This also, I would urge the government and also somehow should go into BAC call for action that these three components should be kept in mind.
Additionally, the relief agencies like Red Cross, in their work, and there needs to be a better collaborative approach with Red Cross and other relief agencies in the conflict situations, in the situations of disaster rescue work.
Thank you.
Thank you, Santos.
Incredibly important points there.
I think you've raised something about we've discussed a little bit about climate resilience here, but I think that the point you mentioned really speaks to the topic of just transition as well and ensuring the solutions we're trying to design to adapt to our changing climate to ensure a greener future are also accessible and inclusive for all.
This is a topic for us at GDI Hub that is incredibly important and we're really trying to look at how these design processes can be inclusive and result in inclusive climate solutions.
I'll now go to Professor Morris for another comment.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Just to point that this year is actually the 20th anniversary for the establishment of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
It's a critical point for us to do an assessment as to where we are in terms of the implementation of the treaty and based on what I've heard my colleagues said, some form of progress has been made over the past 20 years, but we need to look, Sandwich, as to what constitute the next 2050 years in terms of the rights of persons with disabilities.
I've done some research looking at the whole situation of persons with disabilities and how is it that we should move forward in the next 20, 30 years? And I think it is going to be critical recognizing that there are 1.3 billion persons with disabilities across the world for persons with disabilities and organizations of persons with disabilities to really come together and to make sure that they leverage one powerful tool that they have and have not been utilizing it in a coordinated and strategic way, and that is their right to vote as articulated under Article 29 of the CRPD.
I say so because when you look at the multiplier effect of 1.3 billion people using a mother and a father, which every person with a disability has a mother and a father.
That pushes the 16% estimated population of persons with disabilities when conflicted with their mother or father or other relatives close to 50%.
No government will ignore such a massive population in their governance process.
It is how we move forward by coordinating and adopting a strategic approach between NGOs, persons with disabilities, and their relatives to utilize the power of their right to vote, to make sure that government builds accessible systems, make sure that education, the right to employment, social protection systems are in place to protect persons with disabilities.
Take it from one who has sat at the table as a political operative.
Politicians do not ignore mass voting population.
Thank you, Professor Morris.
Incredibly important point there.
Can I now pass to Sandra for your comment? The micro son.
Yeah.
Just had a few comments, especially around data.
I just wanted to emphasize the role of OPDs when it comes to aspects around collecting citizen generated data and how this is also important in the work that we do, and of course, recognizing that OPDs work within communities and they interact with a lot of people.
That means they have these data gaps that we're talking about, OPDs have this data.
How well do we work around building the capacities on how to relay that data and how well do we utilize that data? Secondly, around us looking at data from a very intersectional point of view.
We do understand that persons with disabilities are part of human diversity.
They do have other identities that also expose them to vulnerability.
How we collect our data should be informed by all the different identities that persons with disabilities have.
Could be age, could be sexual orientation and number of identities.
How do we collect the data in a way that we're assessing all of these identities and how those were compounded then expose persons with disabilities to barriers and then use that to inform the interventions that we create.
I just add ons around that.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sandra.
As a research and practice center at TDI Hub to hear the call for evidence based action is very dear to my heart and also the point about intersectionality, I think is really important for us as well.
I think I will now go to Federico for another comment.
Yeah, I'll promise there'll be in 1 minute.
I just wanted to say that I was listening to the colleagues and one thing that struck me, we're talking a lot about at UCLG these new essentials.
Look at what are the new comments that public services should be already and putting accessibility at the core.
But one thing, thinking about this adequate housing and the Bu call to action, um, is looking at how does retrofitting really fit into public service provision.
And we have some cities like Mersa metropolitan government in Turkey, where they've adopted retrofitting as a municipal service as a part of ensuring that people have the right to stay in their homes.
And I think looking at how disability is part of human diversity and is something that can be situational, it can be permanent.
Those things are part of the resilience and provide an approach that ensure that we do have the right to not only adequate housing, but to choose where we live.
Um, and this also goes into what other colleagues were mentioning about this ecosystem that we live in.
You know, persons with disabilities, we don't live in silos.
We live with our communities, we live with our families, our friends, our pets.
And it's really important that we look at this ecosystem from not only human rights based approach, but also an economic approach, that this is important to really building in that economic sustainability, which for many cities is quite important.
I think showing that human right lens, but economy and innovation lens is really important to the future and making sure that it is a priority for many local and regional governments.
Thank you so much.
I love that retrofitting is a municipal service.
I'm going to remember that.
I think as many people in the room will know that retrofitting accessibility is incredibly challenging.
It's often more expensive than building it in from the beginning.
But the fact is most of our cities already have a built environment, have structures that are there.
We are not going to be knocking them down and starting all over again.
We do need to work with retrofitting.
We need to find ways to make retrofitting affordable and accessible so that we can ensure that people can live where they want.
As you said, it's also about choice, not just about adequate housing, but about being able to also have choices about where you live.
Do any of my other panelists have a remark they'd like to make Ahmed? Thank you.
Thank you for all the panelists.
It was an eye opening about a lot of topics.
I think that one of the things that we are seeing now that housing for all and as we are hearing all the session on the Wallet Urban forum, it seems that there are a lot of solution at scale in housing in general and it's a time now or maybe even yesterday to ensure that disability is part of this because It seemed from all the participation that we have or all the intervention that we talked about that housing at scale with disability is not yet housing at scale.
There are still a lot to do and housing is not an urban development issue, regular urban, it's a social issue and as every social issue that we have and also we have a lot of problem that we can see and one of this is market failure, policy failure.
And in some time participation failure.
Unfortunately, disability suffered from the three.
We have a huge market failure when it's come to disability, the market unable to solve a lot of problem related to disability.
We have a policy failure related to disability because lack of data, lack of participation of personal disability, lack of the political will sometime and lack of the solution.
And the participation failure that is happening because how organizational personability and personability are not participating.
Understanding all that and put that in our solution in housing for all and housing at scale that is happening in different contexts now and we hear a lot of context, we hear about developing country, we hear about developed the country and we hear from failure and humanitarian issue setting or context.
I think that consider all that and design solution that is integrating person with disability within this solution, I think it will be an important thing to do.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I think your reflection for me brings together a fundamental point that accessible housing at scale will benefit all of us.
We all throughout our life course will benefit from accessible housing at some point.
The point about mainstreaming is just so essential because really accessible inclusive housing is going to benefit us all.
I can now pass to your Excellency A.
Thank you very much for all participants for excellent solutions, excellent opinions.
Then we concluded today's discussion.
I would like to say that if you want to build this strong society, we have to work together because the strong society must inclusive, accessible, and really comfortable for everyone, when everyone has the equal rights.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Do any of my other panelists, would anyone else like to intervene or should we take questions from the floor? We have Ota and then Barbara.
Trust me, I'm not going to take too much time.
I just want to reflect on something that Barbara said around what you want to measure, the qualitative and the quantitative.
I think there's obsession with in the systems that we create.
I think that leads me to saying something that I love as a philosophy to life that you don't rise to the standards of your goals, you fall to the standards of your systems.
I think we need to build better systems where we can measure things that we care about.
I think right now we're caring too much about the numbers in scale.
How many houses? Let's talk about how many houses are we actually building for persons with disability.
I think the fundamental motto around planning and architecture of all of the things that we're doing in the city is If you move away from the concept of what we do and instead focus on how we feel in the city, I think it'll be much easier to create, build environment and planning systems that address the needs of many and not just needs a few.
I'll pause you.
Thank you.
That's great.
I think that point of measuring the things we care about is so important.
As an inclusive designer, that's very true to my heart as well in terms of really working with people to fundamentally understand their experiences of the world around them and use that as a driver for design.
Barbara, over to you.
One very quick thought and that is I came from the roundtable about elderly people and intersectionality just shouts out at you about that.
So many people with disabilities are lonely, so many people who are elderly are lonely.
In migrant communities, people are very often left without the intergenerational help and support of one another and everybody wants to be useful.
I think in a safe, equal society, everybody can be useful, but we need to design that end, not make people find a way to do it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I think we can now open the floor to questions from our participants.
Is there anyone that would like to ask a question, if you could raise your hand and I'll try to come to you? We have two questions down the end.
So I'll go to Emma first and then to Agni.
Thank you.
This is a lovely discussion and I already felt that I've learned so much from listening to everybody's contributions.
Thank you very much.
I suppose mine is maybe more of an observation and it's similar to what Barbara said that a lot of the themes around inclusion, leadership, participation, and even intersectionality are resonating across this round table, the round table on older persons, the round table on children and youth and women.
There's, I suppose something for us to acknowledge there that we need to recognize the way that these groups are different and have different needs.
And also acknowledge, I suppose, and maybe try and leverage the fact that these groups also share this sense of really struggling to become included and to lead and to participate in a more real way.
So I guess there's something about solidarity there, and there's certainly something about intersectionality that the struggles resonate across some of these themes.
Maybe there's an opportunity for greater solidarity, obviously not to homogenize the specialized needs of all of these groups.
Okay.
Thank you so much.
I'll now go to Avne.
Please do introduce yourself.
Thank you very much.
My name is Abina Guo.
I'm from Ethiopia.
I represent the Ethiopian people with disabilities.
In Ethiopia, we have more than 23 million people with disabilities.
I thank you for especially GD half to open our eyes for first time to attend this kind of conference on the Sardines World Urban Forum as well.
By saying this, maybe I have one quick concern to raise is that to achieve inclusive housing, I think the focus must be shift from the building units of fostering social cohesion and ensuring equitable access to opportunity for all, I think.
I'm just thinking in this regard, I have quick questions especially for UN agents, those who any representing from the panels can answer for me is how by this concept, how far UN principles and the policies are ensuring to see beyond just building the construction ecutability is on board and also to see social inclusion during the thinking of the inclusive building.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Would anyone like to respond to this one? Okay.
Could you repeat the question about what was on board? Accessibility.
Me? Yes, please.
Yes.
My question is, we're always talking about inclusive housing.
We must talk beyond the building of the inclusive housing, how far we are equitable in the building system.
But is there any legal framework from the UN part besides the UN Convention on the Rights of persons with disabilities which guide us to see equitability agenda and social inclusion agenda in the building system.
Thank you.
Santos, did you want to respond? I think you have raised a very important issue.
I would say that you are right that even if you construct an accessible building for being used as house, what happens when you come out of that building? Do we have social care agenda? Do we have the accessible transport? Do we have adequate opportunities for earning livelihood around that vicinity? These are all interrelated issues which need to be comprehensively and simultaneously addressed while we talk of accessible housing? Housing is not just a dwelling building.
Housing demonstrates and represents a place which signifies dignity, which signifies our independent, our opportunity to live independently and to live with dignity.
Thank you, Santos and over to Professor Morris for another response.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
And indicate that whilst I'm a member of the committee on the rights of persons with disabilities, currently, I'm not speaking and responding here in that context.
But just to say that emanating from the CRPD, the CRPD committee had developed general comments on Article 9, which deals with accessibility and It serves as a guide for states parties and organizations within the United Nations system.
On how to treat with the issue of accessibility, and it intersects.
It connects with a number of issues that Santu raised issues like transportation, issues like sidewalks, in terms of living independently in the community, issues of uh education, health care, et cetera What has to happen is that persons with disabilities have to assist in policing and monitoring in their respective jurisdiction.
What their governments and their countries have signed up to where the CRPD is concerned and make sure that they hold them accountable to implementing what they have signed up to in the CRPD.
It's a rights based era that we are in, and we must ensure that we press for our rights to be recognized.
The general comments on accessibility clearly delineates how we should treat that issue.
Thank you, Professor Morris.
I think from my perspective and I'm not speaking as a representative of the UN, but as a researcher and designer myself, I think I see that increasingly this system level problem looking beyond housing as individual units to a systemic problem in urban ecosystem that we need to make inclusive is increasingly recognized, but I think there is room for us to look at how we use the frameworks that we have to really drive implementation and drive change.
Do I have Okay.
Federico would also like to make a comment, so I'll pass.
Sorry, I know I'm taking the mic too many times.
But I did there was something that you mentioned that I think is really important from a public planning perspective and I think also something that we can think about at a rights based.
But I think this so much focus sometimes at the municipality department wise, you're doing housing, you're doing health, all the separation, but everything is linked.
I think if we look at this from the accessibility part, something that we talk about is this accessibility chain.
That's why we have accessible housing, why we have accessible transport, you're not just going to stay in one place and your decisions about enjoying the environment are all linked and you should be able to go from point A to point B or skip and go A to point D and go back from D to A, which is your home or wherever.
And so really building in that accessibility chain approach.
But that's a huge thing that we also need OPD is more engaged with is linking the different departments and them understanding that I should be able to get from my house to the hospital or my house to the movie theater, and everything should be accessible from there.
So we're looking at a whole ecosystem there.
That housing is one part, but when you're planning housing, it should be with all the other planning departments.
Thank you.
I'd now like to pass to AV for another response.
Egypt, P f, Danish Klar, tactile set, U Santo, Latins.
You go on, please.
Please.
Okay.
Accessibility.
Accessibility is very important.
Prices elevators, large stores, ductiles services, adequate septic tanks are very necessary, but they don't mean inclusivity at all.
A single building may be accessible, but if it's expensive and far from the public transport, health care has no relation to social services and amenities, it may not provide adequate living conditions for the people disability disabilities.
Adequate housing is not only living place, but also affordability, accessibility, and ability to live among other or people.
For disability for people with disability, it's also the ability of their choice where to live and among whom and private life.
They are legal owners and they can make choices without us.
We should create equitable rights and they want their right of vote.
Accessible shall not be regarded as a detail added later because first creating constraint and then trying to lift it is very expensive but also unjust.
Social roads amenities shall be built and planned in advance on social equitability principle.
It also means rebuilding, restoration.
Every social housing plan, reconstruction plan shall assist in terms of inclusivity of the people with disabilities.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Well, thank you so much to all the panelists for all that you shared.
I'm Shivani Gupta.
I work with the Global Disability Innovation Hub.
But today, I think I would be speaking more as a person with disabilities.
And I think the importance of accessible housing really needs to be understood because I am aware of a very large percentage of people with disabilities who actually cannot step out of the house and are in a way, the house is an institution for them.
There are rights for people who are in institutions, but if we look at people with disabilities in their house who are already not able to go out, there are no rights for them, you know, because it comes under the family court and all those things.
So Having said that, I think just a couple of reflections, something that I've already heard from the panel, when we look at building codes, there is hardly anything about housing and we do not see those design guidance that is required to make housing.
And when we are talking of low income social housing, often this housing in terms of square feet is so small that it cannot be made accessible.
So these are really very difficult things, important things that needs to be considered.
And I think I just end my question from, you know, the panel.
If there is any example you could share where OPDs were partners in developing any infrastructure project, need not be housing or anything if you can share anything like that.
Thank you.
Do I have anyone from the panel that has an example to share or anyone from the room, I should say.
Yeah.
Ahmed.
Thank you.
I think that this is very important.
I cannot stress more about it's all it's about equal opportunity at the end, how we are providing the same opportunity.
For the example, we haven't reached a lot of resilience and inclusive city, a lot of example.
But one of them strike me now is the work that is done with UN habitat and the government, housing fund related to the government in one of the city of Egypt where they are doing social housing and because of the Egyptian code, they are doing it to maximum accessibility.
And the cities that they are working in is already an industrial city.
Most of the industrial facilities there have their own quota because of the law there.
So they are providing job for persons with disability.
Personal disability have access, quota, access to social housing, and they have access to accessible social housing, and they have access to the job.
But no one was coming and this is the issue.
It's not about accessible housing.
It's a system.
Because when we done the project and starting working now and do some analyzing with the person with disabilities themselves, where is the problem? It had been in the attitude, it had been in the transportation.
It had been on the extra cost of disability that is existing there.
It had been in our a lot of things more than the housing itself.
The project that is starting to examine why the housing is not accessible or access enough and as the title of the session beyond accessibility, this is what beyond accessibility.
Then the redesigning of the program itself is now thinking it's not about social housing.
It's about how the people reach, enter, circulate and use, and then benefit from equal opportunity in equal part.
Again, it's not about housing or working, it's also about leisure activity.
It's about all that.
This is one example.
The example of Asbia and Ais Ababa also is a very important example where we have a GDI hub is doing a person first approach to understand What is the community? What is the case of the community, and what is making person's ability feel that they are part of the cities that they are living in and they can be a productive part of this city.
This is also important.
Let's say that one of the problems that we are facing on that is the fragmentation.
Because as you said, intersectionality here play a big role.
It's not about personability only.
It's about a lot of other community member that is having the same issue, but unfortunately, they are not part of the solution as we are designing it.
I hope that this is Another response from Aide.
Unfortunately, there is no sample of this in any country of the world.
I'll tell you a fun story.
We had a meeting with people with disability deputy minister said that your building is not accessible because you have no appendices.
The deputy minister was in a very difficult situation and believe that we reported the situation and we could make it accessible for the people with disabilities.
I think that this individual case may also serve as a good example for this.
Fantastic.
Thank you.
I think one clear example is there's more work to do.
I think that's a clear action for us.
I think we have time for one final question, and I see one from Ab in the back.
Is there anyone who hasn't spoken yet that would like to ask a question to double check? I think the floor is yours.
We don't have any other takes.
Thank you.
I'm just going to add some examples that what we are doing as an OPD in Ethiopia.
Before three years, we start with a five year project.
And we identified the gap in construction system and building system.
Then we worked on it together with Addis Ababa University.
Then we started advocacy to see the change in the policy frameworks on the nationwide on building construction things.
Finally, the good news is that just before five months, our parliament adopted the new building proclamation.
Which clearly underlined that the accessibility matters, and also it really ensures actually a special proclamation in our country never been happened.
Because we count as special because any proclamation says, when you adopt today, it starts acting today onward.
But this proclamation works back.
And it clearly says all the buildings should have to be amended without changing the structure in the upcoming two years.
After this proclamation, no building will be inugurated without standards respected, especially by respecting universal designs as well.
As it clearly underlined that the participation of persons with disability should be ensured in every step, especially during special attention during the design approval.
So this will be, I think one of good example.
But also, finally, I have one question for Azerbijans.
I really love this all they organized the way World Urban Forum cains is they try their best to be inclusive.
So I need to know if we get a chance for sharing from their experience because as Ethiopia is going to be host the Cp 32 next year.
So we need to learn from them how they make everything accessible, especially from my side, thanks Azerbajan people that I never faced any challenge as a wheelchair user starting from airport till today.
I just wanted to learn from them.
Thank you.
Thank you, An.
A very important point.
Yes, we have a response.
Okay.
Thank you very much for question.
But how I represent the Arab government, I don't know.
But if I represented our center, let me say that our center is more inclusive for people with disability and of course we are ready to share our experience because we also took part in the Cop 29 as a dose Center for inclusive Center and creativity.
So we are ready to share our experience.
Just if you take the content to us, so we're ready, of course.
Thank you so much, and I think this represents one further step in really creating what I would say is a building inclusive legacy around the World Urban Forum.
This is the Third World World Urban forum that I attend personally, and it's been fascinating to learn from each one what worked.
Sometimes also what didn't work and what we can do better next time.
I think the shared global commitment to making these events where people are gathering from all over the world inclusive is such a good opportunity to lead by example.
I think that has been demonstrated also here by the Republic of Azerbijan, thank you for that.
We are very close to wrapping up now, but I think we actually have time for one final comment or question.
Would anybody like to share one final reflection? Yes.
Go ahead.
I just wanted to say that in light of established research pointing to us venturing into a period of Earth's history where there will be significant and catastrophic natural disasters, and we have seen it already in different parts of the world, that it is very important for building systems across the world to be designed in such a way to cater to the needs of persons with disabilities and in particular, housing and where they are built and how they are designed and to make sure that we have credible and accurate data on the population of persons with disabilities because when you have data, you are able to plan more effectively and when you have information, you are able to execute with greater strategic focus.
And so I think that leaving here we must ensure that all our building systems, all our designs adhere to the best practices where accessibility is concerned.
Because accessibility, as we in the UN system treats it or regards it as an ex ante duty.
The moment that you offer a public service and the building is open to the public, it must be made accessible to persons with disabilities.
Failure to do that constitute an act of discrimination against persons with disabilities.
And so accessibility is a fundamental right to persons with disabilities, and it must be respected.
Thank you, Professor Morris, to Your Excellency.
Just one remark.
Maybe I would like to using this opportunity to invite all experts or guests to our urban expo.
When we have the pavilion, when our beneficiaries from the vulnerable group are made by handicrafts and so you can visit with great pleasure.
Thank you so much.
This brings us perfectly to the time for our closing plenary.
It is my honor to introduce Your Excellency Anna Claudia Rosbck, the Executive Director of U and Habitat for our closing plenary.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Well, thank you so much.
First of all, I really appreciate your time, your availability to come to Baku to be with us at this 13th session of the Word Aan Forum and to be with us at this round table.
We have been putting a lot of efforts and energies to make sure that this is a participatory process, the whole preparation of the forum, the Baku call to action, and that we go through meaningful sessions so that we can incorporate the content of the discussions, your discussions, our discussions, you know, into the several layers of work that we have, the advocacy, the normative work that we are doing, but also the work on the ground.
I could share with you what we have been doing, you know, in terms of promoting accessibility, through various projects that we have on the ground, through knowledge, getting and consolidating knowledge and so on.
But I think what's more important than that here for this conversation is that we are in a moment of starting the first year of an Haptads new strategic plan that focuses on housing, access to housing, the transformation of informal settlements.
So this discussion comes in this very strategic moment and we can incorporate this element in the implementation of the plan.
It goes beyond projects.
It goes really embedding it in our overall action.
Also, the review of the new urban agenda, the midterm review of the new urban agenda in New York, where we will have high level meeting on the 16th and 17th of July, look at what failed in the last ten years, what hasn't worked, what worked, and what we need to do, what are the urgencies and so on for the next ten years.
In the consultations that we had, housing became a critical issue.
But we know that it's not only about building houses and we have been talking about it throughout the forum.
It's about housing that is integrated in the urban fabric, housing that is designed for all um, a housing that is connected to the spaces and to the cities in a way that is accessible for everyone.
So it's not a simple agenda.
It's an interconnected agenda.
It's an issue of, you know, building systems that we work for everybody.
We also have been bringing the issue of um, the vulnerable, marginalized communities, the informal settlements, and really looking at these areas with the urgency that it deserves.
Because if we talk about accessibility, if we talk about persons with disabilities and their rights, there's an overlapping of exclusion in these areas, specifically in these areas.
Um, so I would I would put that on the table as a matter of urgency.
We cannot afford to, you know, to keep expanding the informal settlements because this is generating and sorry, multiplying exclusion.
So the proposal here is that we work together not only during the Wan forum but in preparation for the next between the world of form because we have to make sure that the agenda advances and it's very important that we utilize the global spaces that we have available.
The global Disability summit in 2025 that I attended, I think it was an amazing fantastic gathering where we had the opportunity to discuss, but also to see the practical solutions.
Our global collaborations with the International Disability Alliance, with the Global Disability Innovation Hub, uh, with UCLG, with the World Blind Union and Word enabled with the global disability funds.
These are all strategic entry points for us to leverage resources and to bring the agenda up front.
Then, of course, we have our work at the country level where we provide technical assistance, where we implement projects, so we have to make sure that we land and ground these conversations in concrete realities when we are advising government cities in designing urban plans.
When we are devising governments and cities on designing urban policies or housing policies and the regulations in the frameworks.
I just came from the roundtable with parliamentarians.
That's why I was a little bit delayed.
But we need to have that embedded in the regulations, in the laws, and so on.
The rights needs to be there.
This is an effort that we have to do all together.
I propose that we keep the conversations, but we keep the action ongoing and we make sure to match these opportunities of reviewing the new urban agenda, of our new strategic plan to to be stronger with the agenda of accessibility.
And in defending the rights of persons with disabilities.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
I think you've really brought our discussion full circle here background to where we started at the beginning about what mandates, what global commitments we have in place that we need to work with, we need to collaborate on to realize the action that's needed for tangible change.
I will do some very brief closing remarks.
We've just got a couple of minutes to conclude.
So I was asked to share some of the recommendations that have come through from today and I'm just going to pick and choose some we will be obviously able to share more following the roundtable itself.
We heard a lot about data and what data matters to people.
I think this is a really important point to bring home.
Related to that, I think we heard also about intersectionality and considering the diverse needs of people who are experiencing exclusion, who are disadvantaged and making sure that when we're championing leading the rights of persons with disabilities that we're also considering how we can do this in a holistic and integrated way to ensure that we're creating inclusive cities for all.
We also heard that resilience and inclusion matter and need to go hand in hand when we think about solutions.
We need systemic change.
A lot of these problems are interconnected.
We really need to look at that systems level to really create long term change and a legacy of sustainability with the actions that we do take.
The participation and leadership of OPDs of persons with disabilities is absolutely fundamental and we as a group gathered here, including diverse stakeholders need to ensure that we support and create the space and the mechanisms to allow OPD and persons with disabilities to lead.
I think we're all aware that there is an implementation gap here that we need to focus on action, and that is, I think, a clear priority that we would like to see what we would be discussing in two years' time at the next World Urban Forum.
Really, this is about moving beyond accessibility, and I think coming back to the overarching theme of World Urban Forum of housing the world, I think to truly house the world, to live safely, to have resilience for people to thrive on our planet, we need systemic change that's going to bring disability inclusion, accessibility, and inclusive design into all of the conversations we're having about urban solutions.
To leave you with a concrete next step, we wanted to share that we will be looking to follow up following the roundtable with a meeting later in the summer to look at how we can convene a group that are interesting to discuss, how we can implement the Baku call to action and ensure that disability remains a high priority.
I think there's been a form circulating to take people's details and we will be in touch on that and really hope that this will be an ongoing conversation, a collaboration between all the partners.
So I think to end, I just want to thank again, the Republic of Azerbijan for hosting us here in Baku and hosting us in such an accessible and inclusive manner to thank you and habitat and Anna Claudian as the Executive Director for your creating the space for disability inclusion and persons with disabilities to be such a big part of the World Urban Forum.
I want to thank our distinguished guests, our distinguished speakers, for all of their brilliant interventions today, all of our participants who've also contributed and shared their knowledge, their ideas with us today from the roundtable.
Lastly, and really importantly, to thank all of our interpreters that have also supported us to make this an accessible and inclusive discussion.
With that, I will formally close the roundtable on persons with disabilities.
Thank you, everyone, and have a good evening.
Thank you.