UN Report on Disability and Sustainable Development Goals

The UN Flagship Report on Disability and Development vividly illustrates ‘that despite the progress made in recent years, persons with disabilities continue to face numerous barriers to their full inclusion and participation in the life of their communities’. The report ‘sheds light on their disproportionate levels of poverty, their lack of access to education, health services, employment, their under-representation in decision-making and political participation’. Unfortunately, according to the report, this is especially the case for women and girls with disabilities. The report goes on to say that ‘Main barriers to inclusion entail discrimination and stigma on the ground of disability, lack of accessibility to physical and virtual environments, lack of access to assistive technology, essential services, rehabilitation and support for independent living that are critical for the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities as agents of change and beneficiaries of development’. Nonetheless, among many other points and analysis, the data presented in the report indicate that ‘persons with disabilities are not yet sufficiently included in the implementation, monitoring. and evaluation of the SDGs’. The full report analyses the situation of each of the SDGs in relation to persons with disabilities.