Mr. Alradi Abdalla:

I am happy to get this opportunity to brief the committee on social protection. I am speaking on behalf of the International Disability Alliance, which is a global alliance of organisations of persons with disabilities, OPDs. OPDs are prioritising social protection as a component for achieving the sustainable development goals. Social protection is instrumental in mitigating poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion, and strengthening these systems is crucial for fulfilling the 2030 agenda. Persons with disabilities often encounter significant expenses with respect to money, time, and support due to the inaccessibility of infrastructure, communications, and decision-making. Many people with disabilities live on the brink of poverty because of the lack of economic safeguards provided by social protection. These can help to address this issue. However, existing mainstream social protection programmes often fail to include persons with disabilities in their design and the cash amounts provided are inadequate to cover the costs persons with disabilities and their families incur due to multiple barriers to participation. In some countries, policies disqualify persons with disabilities who work from receiving benefits, despite the allowance's potential to support more people to enter the workforce. Additionally, social protection programs often take a one-size-fits-all approach rather than being responsive to the diversity of the disability movement. This approach neglects the evolving requirements across the life cycle. Moreover, social protection is frequently inaccessible due to medicalised disability assessments that exclude those who may need it most. Countries should implement disability assessment systems that are easily accessible across borders and focus on functional challenges and participation support requirements.

To address disability-related extra costs and break the vicious cycle of disability and poverty, a disability-inclusive social protection system consistent with Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities should combine accessible mainstream services, cash transfers and various forms of concessions. These schemes should aim to maximize full and effective participation and enable persons with disabilities to thrive and not only survive. The implementation of a universal individual disability allowance which pays disability-related costs, consistent with work and other basic income security schemes, could be a significant step toward the system we are aiming at. It is essential to ensure social protection systems facilitate access to income security, health coverage, education, support services, are responsive to the local context, are built on a human rights-based approach and contribute to the inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities. Social protection should acknowledge the diverse needs of persons with disabilities throughout their life cycle. It should also be responsive to the extra disability-related costs as well as the support services required by persons with disabilities.

As social protection systems receive increasing investment, it is vital to ensure their sustainability, responsiveness and disability inclusivity. At the International Disability Alliance, we stress that it is crucial there is participation of persons with disabilities through their representative organisations in designing these programmes because those persons have the experience to evaluate and correct the national systems to be more inclusive for persons with disabilities. They will also reflect the diversity within the movement with regard to gender, ethnicity and different intersectionalities. I thank the committee. It is a great pleasure to be given this opportunity.