Following their two conferences on Development & Disability, the World Bank continues to exert leadership on the topic.
This month's World Bank Briefing Note continues the dialogue as well as collating important documents that have shaped the project. The Briefing Note can be valuable reading as a resource in maturing the discussion on the relationship between sustainable development and universal design, and reflecting on the significance of tourism.
From the introduction:
DISABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT AND THE WORLD BANK--A Briefing Summary on February 2, 2005--
Disability and Development (DD). Interest in inclusive development is growing within governments, civil society, and the development community, but efforts in these areas are hamstrung by the lack of research exploring the link between disability and poverty and evaluations of good practices. This lack results directly from the scarcity of quality data. Therefore, a main priority of the Disability and Development (DD) Team at the World Bank is being proactive in generating the type of information that can make inclusive development possible and helping the Bank to become a leader in this area.
Central to the success of our efforts is building partnerships with other development agencies. To that end the Bank has partnered with the UN, the IDB, OECD and others in data gathering efforts (see Attachment 3). As part of our broader strategy on building partnerships, a conference was convened in December 2004, titled “Disability and Inclusive Development: Sharing, Learning and Building Alliances” (see Attachment 1). This is part of an ongoing effort to build new partnerships.
This memo briefly summarizes what is known about disability prevalence and the relation between disability and poverty, and then outlines the World Bank’s activities in building a solid research base that can inform inclusive development.
Further Reading:
February 2005 Briefing Note