Access to social security is a crucial element of inclusive societies. For persons living with disabilities, it plays an especially important role in providing an adequate standard of living and basic income security, thereby reducing vulnerability and levels of poverty.
This expert meeting will be in a roundtable format to allow for a collaborative discussion. Policy makers, researchers, and practitioners will have the opportunity to exchange views and experiences, explore best practices and opportunities for collaboration, discuss the coordination of social protection systems, examine the role of special programmes geared towards persons with disabilities and discuss states’ challenges in ensuring the right to social protection.
Information shared during the meeting will be used by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Catalina Devandas, to prepare a report for the UN General Assembly’s 70th session in October.
| Moderators |
| Theresia Degener | Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities |
| Magdalena Sepúlveda | Senior Research Fellow, UNRISD |
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| Presenters |
| Uwe Gehlen | Head of Social Protection, GIZ |
| Isabella Bertmann | GIZ |
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| Panelists |
| Sergei Soares | President, Institute for Applied Economic Research (Brazil) |
| Christina Behrendt | Senior Social Protection Policy Specialist, ILO |
| Zhyldyz Polotova | Deputy Minister of Social Development, Kyrgizstan |
| Thokozani Magwaza | Acting Director General, Department of Social Development (South Africa) |
| Basant Raj Gautam | Joint Secretary/Chief District Officer at Ministry of Home Affairs (Nepal) |
| Stanfield Michelo | Director of Social Welfare in the Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health (Zambia) |
| Nguyen Thi Thu Thanh | Government of Vietnam |
| Katariina Sario | Senior Advisor, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland |
| Alex Cote | Capacity Building Program Officer, International Disability Alliance |
| Ola Abu Alghaib | Disability Rights Fund Advisory Panel Member(Palestine) |
| Sylvia Beales | Head of Strategic Alliances, HelpAge |
Photo: "
Standing on her own two feet again" by
DFID - UK Department for International Development. Common Creatives BY 2.0