Mr. Wu Hongbo Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Secretary-General for the International Conference on Small Island Developing States
High-level Meeting on Disability and Development
Roundtable 2: The post-2015 development agenda and inclusive development for persons with disabilities
Roundtable 2: The post-2015 development agenda and inclusive development for persons with disabilities
23 September 2013, New York
Your Excellency, Ms. Heidi Hautala, Minister of International Development of Finland,
Your Excellency, Mr. Othman Jerandi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia,
Your Excellencies, Distinguished Representatives,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As a co-chair of the Inter-Agency Support Group on the CRPD, I want to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of so many of its members in promoting the inclusion of disability in their respective areas of work, and in supporting the present meeting.
We see promising steps taken in the process towards? the post-2015 development agenda. The inter-linkages between disability and sustainable development were addressed last year at Rio+20.? Earlier this year, the Secretary-General¡¯s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda issued its report,[1] which addressed disability as a cross-cutting development issue.
In July, DESA held the inaugural session of its ¡°UN DESA Forum: Dialogue on Post-2015 Development Frameworks and Disability¡±. The Forum facilitates policy dialogue on disability inclusive development, to allow for the exchange of knowledge, ideas and good practices, and to facilitate the formation of partnerships to scale up impact.
Excellencies,
The outcome document adopted at this Meeting is a new milestone. By adopting the outcome document, Member States and the international community at large have stressed the importance of ensuring accessibility for, and inclusion of persons with disabilities, in all aspects of development and giving due consideration to all persons with disabilities in the emerging post-2015 United Nations development agenda.
We must now turn our focus to its implementation.
To turn these commitments into reality on the ground, stakeholders must implement more ambitious disability-inclusive national development strategies and efforts. Such efforts should include full implementation of the international normative framework on disability and development and ensure that all development policies take into account the needs of persons with disabilities.?
DESA stands ready to provide cooperation and partnership to Members States and other stakeholders in the elaboration, implementation and monitoring of inclusive and sustainable development policies and programmes, towards 2015 and beyond.
Thank you.