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Ecuador High Level Meeting and Forum on Disability Inclusion and Accessible Urban Development

  • United Nations Pavilion Quito Ecuador (map)

IDPP is presenting at and facilitating accessible remote participation for the “Ecuador High Level Meeting and Forum on Disability Inclusion and Accessible Urban Development” hosted by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) / Division for Social and Policy Development (DSPD), the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development of Ecuador, and Habitat III on 16 October from 1:00pm-6:30pm Quito time in Room A of the UN Pavilion.

The Forum opens with Master of Ceremony Ms. Daniela Bas of the UN DESA/DSPD and opening addresses by Mr. Hongbo Wu of UN DESA; Ms. Maria de los Angeles Duarte of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development of Ecuador; Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of The Nippon Foundation; and Mr. Lenin Moreno, the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility, among others.

Dr. Cogburn is speaking on "Innovations through Multistakeholder Partnerships" during Part I: Ways Forward to Implement the New Urban Agenda and Promote Inclusive and Accessible Urban Development for All of Session II: Taking Actions to Make the New Urban Agenda Inclusive, Accessible and Sustainable.



He is highlighting IDPP’s Disability Inclusive Development Policy Collaboratory, supported by The Nippon Foundation, which has been facilitating the global multistakeholder Disability Inclusive and Accessible Urban Development (DIAUD) Network and has enabled concerted disability-inclusive efforts to Habitat III. These successful efforts include the New Urban Agenda’s stand-alone paragraph on disability and 15 references to persons with disabilities, as well as persons with disabilities becoming an official major stakeholder group of Habitat III through the Persons with Disabilities Partner Constituency Group of the General Assembly of Partners.

Moderated by Ms. Akiko Ito, Chief Secretariat of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at UN DESA/DSPD, Parts I and II of Session II also include a key presentation by IDPP Joint Advisory Board Chair Amb. Luis Gallegos, and remarks by IDPP Senior Doctoral Fellow Mr. Mohammed Ali Loutfy; IDPP International Advisory Board Chair Dr. Victor Pineda; Mr. Yasunobu Ishii and Mr. John Honney of The Nippon Foundation; and Ms. Susan Parker of Rehabilitation International, among others.

IDPP is facilitating accessible remote participation for this High Level Meeting and Forum. This collaborative initiative is in line with IDPP’s Accessible Global Governance research, supported by The Nippon Foundation, which studies the factors that enhance or limit the participation of persons with disabilities in the UN system, its meetings and events, as well as broader global governance processes.

The DESA Forum is attended by approximately 150 high-level experts and representatives of government agencies, local authorities, the private sector, civil society, academia, and the UN system, working in the field of disability-inclusion and accessible urban development. The Forum aims to promote the world´s urban development to be inclusive and accessible to persons with disabilities, as well as to contribute to the emerging New Urban Agenda and its implementation.