On the 23rd September 2013 there was a high-level meeting of The General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, on disability and development. I attended this meeting with Prof Leslie Swartz. We also met in this meeting with some members of the AfriNEAD core group. In 2010, the General Assembly in its resolution 65/186, proposed the convening of a high-level meeting on disability. The aim of the meeting was to strengthen efforts to ensure accessibility for an inclusion of persons with disabilities post MDGs tenure in all aspects of development.
Subsequently in 2011, the Assembly adopted resolution 66/124 and decided to convene a one-day high-level meeting of the General Assembly on disability (HLMD) at the level of heads of State and Government on 23rd September 2013, the Monday before the start of the general debate of the sixty-eighth session. Under the theme “The way forward: a disability inclusive development agenda towards 2015 and beyond”, the HLMD comprised of a plenary meeting and two consecutive informal interactive round tables.
Participation in each round table included member states, observers and representatives of entities of the United Nations system, as well as representatives of civil society, organizations of persons with disabilities and the private sector.
We again tried to make the HLMD representatives that were accessible to us aware of Afrinead and the AJOD.
So we say good bye to 2013 and look forwards to 2014, when we hope to see as many of you as possible at our AfriNEAD Symposium in Malawi.