ADDIS ABABA (ILO News) – African Ministers of Social Development, AU Commissioners and experts, UN Agencies (UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, ILO, UNICEF, UNFPA), Development Partners, Representatives of African Regional and National institutions including CSO’s attended a week-long meeting in Addis Ababa to better address and protect the rights of persons with disabilities in Africa.

“Integration of persons with disabilities in society entails their employment, (…)” recommended African Ministers for Social Development with an emphasis on education.

According to the AUC, the lack of reliable data on disability in AU Member States hampers the efforts to highlight the poverty – social exclusion – disability nexus. However, there is increasing evidence to show that social protection is an essential but often overlooked development strategy which directly reaches out to the poorest while complementing investment in other areas of social and economic development.

The ILO raised awareness of AU Member States on the Recommendation no. 202 concerning national floors for social protection (New ILO Recommendation on social protection floors). Social protection floors are nationally defined sets of basic social security guarantees which secure protection aimed at preventing or alleviating poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion.

National social protection floors should comprise at least the following four social security guarantees, as defined at the national level: access to essential health care, including maternity care; basic income security for children, providing access to nutrition, education, care and any other necessary goods and services; basic income security for persons in active age who are unable to earn sufficient income, in particular in cases of sickness, unemployment, maternity and disability; and basic income security for older persons.

Today, CSO’s estimates measuring the affordability of social protection show that extending a minimum national package (child benefit, old age allowance and disability grant) to all low income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa would cost just 3 per cent of the $25 billion increase in aid flows to Africa agreed at Gleneagles in 2005.

African Ministers for Social Development recommended that “social protection provisions for the poor feature in the Post-2015 Development Agenda”.

For the ILO, Social security is a human right and a social and economic necessity. Promoting the rights and welfare of persons with disabilities - in the context of the implementation of the Strategic Framework for Social Policy in Africa - fits directly into the strategies recommended by the Recommendation No. 202 on national social protection floors.

For more detailed information, please visit:

http://www.au.int/en/content/3rd-session-au-conference-ministers-social-development-camsd3

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Further information

ILO Resource guide on disability

/public/english/support/lib/resource/subject/disability.htm

ILO: Social security

/global/topics/social-security/lang--en/index.htm