By Fernando Álvarez: Ex IMF Economist
The ILO has taken a major step toward promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace with the launch of a pioneering new global knowledge sharing platform linking scores of multinational enterprises and organizations representing employers and networks of people with disabilities. The Network and website will also provide international businesses with information on how to include employment of people with disabilities in their work plans.
The new ‘ILO Global Business and Disability Network’ website: www.businessanddisability.org was launched on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and represents a joint effort of the ILO Disability Team in the Skills and Employability Department (EMP/SKILLS) and the Bureau for Employers’ Activities (ACT/EMP).
The Network will help its members share knowledge and identify good practices; develop products and services that facilitate hiring and retention of disabled people; strengthen technical expertise on disability issues; and link its members to ILO activities and partners at the national level and through their local offices and supply chains.
"The idea is to bring everybody together to find the best ways to include people with disabilities in the workplace - what are the good practices, who would make good partners for companies and how can we move this forward so the companies can realize the business case and people with disabilities can have access to decent work”, said Debra Perry, Senior Disability Technical Specialist.
Henrik Moller, Senior Professional Officer with the Bureau for Employers' Activities said “This cooperation provides ILO’s knowledge and technical expertise on disability issues to Network members and will change the workplace, making it more diverse, more productive and more inclusive of people with disabilities.”
The ILO also launched a new video that includes interviews with Network members and examples of disabled people at work. The video can be accessed through ILO TV on YouTube.
The primary goal of the ILO is to promote opportunities for everyone, including people with disabilities, to obtain decent and productive work, based on the principles of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.
With the help of the members of the ILO Global Business and Disability Network, negative and inaccurate stereotypes about disability are breaking down, in favor of diversity, inclusion and giving every member of the society the opportunity to work, and contribute to a more prosperous future, for everyone.
