Multi-Regional Global Disability Pre Summit 2024

As part of the activities leading up to the GDS in April 2025, Jordan will host a regional pre-summit for the Middle East and North Africa Region, as well as Africa and Asia. The event, slated for the 13th-14th November 2024, will target government officials, civil society representatives, organisations of persons with disabilities, individuals with disabilities and their families. The pre-summit aims to stimulate international collaboration and place emphasis on the regional specific needs and priorities that will ultimately lead to the establishment of sub-themes and commitments for the following regions:

Middle East and Africa
Select countries in Latin America
Select countries in Asia
Australia and New Zealand

Specifically, the regional pre-summit will:

Engage the stakeholders in the ongoing GDS preparations.
Validate the themes identified by the organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) during the consultation process conducted with them.
Help determine their initial role in the GDS content and outcomes, especially as relates to advocacy to enforce the commitments which will be submitted by the governments and lobby the latter to submit robust and effective commitments.
Disseminate information about the GDS, serving as a mouth-piece within OPD networks and connections.

Global Disability Summit 2025

Co-hosted by the Governments of Germany and Jordan, and the International Disability Alliance (IDA)

For more information about Global Disability Summit ,please click here.

WHEN & WHO

• April 2-3, 2025, in Berlin, Germany. Heads of states and leaders of governments, organizations of persons with disabilities, multilateral and international organizations, businesses and non-governmental organizations.

WHY

• The main goal of the GDS is to increase commitment of the world leaders to disability inclusive development. Disability inclusion is still not a priority in most countries of the world and largely underfunded. It is time for change, to recognize that disability inclusion is not a charity act, but a fundamental human right – both duty and quality feature of modern organizations and societies. Disability inclusive structures benefit and sustain societies as a whole.

WHAT

• The GDS aims to galvanize global efforts to realize disability inclusion around the world. It brings together a wide variety of high-level stakeholders, engaging and discussing the progress in disability inclusion: governments, multilateral agencies, the private sector, and civil society organizations, including organizations of persons with disabilities and foundations.

• GDS offers a mechanism for commitments that advance investments in financial and human resources to support disability inclusive development and humanitarian action. The best of these, as well as good practices and evidence from around the world, will be showcased to a global audience in Berlin in order to inspire change. Throughout 2024, stakeholders are mobilized to submit commitments, i.e. political and/or financial pledges towards disability inclusion. Commitments can be submitted from June 2024 onward.