RI Global: Office of Communications
Contact: Adrian Brune, +1 347-759-9501
Today, RI Secretary General Venus Ilagan spoke at the UNDESA-DSPD Forum on Disability Inclusion and Accessible Urban Development, held at the United Nations Office in Nairobi, Kenya. The forum is reviewing existing policies and practices concerning disability-inclusive urban development. Its aim is to develop a set of recommendations to advance disability inclusion in the global discourse on urban development and the New Urban Agenda (UN-Habitat III).
Urbanization is a growing global phenomenon in many countries. The proportion of the world’s urban population is expected to increase to approximately 57 percent of the world’s population by 2050. For the world’s one billion persons with disabilities, urban areas, if ill-planned and built, often present significant challenges, including lack of accessible infrastructure, spaces, facilities and basic public services. Ill-planned urbanisation, as seen in most developing countries, produced many urban areas with insufficient and inaccessible infrastructure, inadequate design of housing and public buildings, and limited access to accessible transport. These barriers have contributed to growing inequalities and exclusion of persons with disabilities and other marginalized groups.
Making cities and towns accessible to and inclusive of all people, including those with disabilities, is essential for sustainable urban development. As a global network of experts dedicated to the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the lives and development of their communities and countries, access and inclusion are issues at the core of RI’s work as an organization.
Experts from around the world have convened in Nairobi to discuss and draw recommendations on disability inclusion and accessible urban development
RI Global: Founded in 1922, Rehabilitation International (RI Global) is a worldwide network promoting the rights and inclusions of persons with disabilities (PwDs) through advocacy, habilitation and rehabilitation to achieve an inclusive world in which all people can enjoy full human rights.
Join us at the 2016 RI Global World Congress: riworldcongress.com
