Greetings from New York!
When this newsletter is out, I will be at the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, an exciting event where thousands of participants will discuss the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The guest list includes several Presidents, Prime Ministers and Ministers, representatives from business and international organisations and, of course, representatives from every major civil society group – including persons with disabilities.
This edition of the Disability Voice is very special for me. It is quite fair to say that EDF has become a key reference point when it comes to understanding the Sustainable Development Goals from a disability perspective in Europe. We are very proud of this.
In fact, we have been tremendously busy working on it for the last three years. We worked tirelessly to engage organisations of persons with disabilities (DPOs) in the sustainable development processes. We worked assiduously to ensure persons with disabilities are included in the Sustainable Development Goals. We supported our great members. We organised and spoke at several important international, national and regional events.
We did this because we believe that organisations of persons with disabilities should be a part of the SDGs and international cooperation.
The EU has proposed a budget of 90 billion Euro dedicated to international cooperation: it is quite clear for EDF that persons with disabilities and their representatives organisations should be included, not only as beneficiaries but also as experts – “nothing about us without us”!
This is why for the past six months, we conducted an important consultation with our members, with our allies and with the International Disability Alliance. The consultation aimed to establish what role EDF should play in international cooperation. The result is our new and shiny strategy called “EDF in the world: EDF’ strategy for international cooperation 2019-2022”. We will focus on implementing it for the years to come.
Be ready!
Wishing you a wonderful summer,
Marion