Consultant

Client of United Nation careers

Background and Objective: In Arab countries, the available data indicates that employment rates of individuals with disabilities are much lower than those without disabilities. The situation is even worse for women with disability, as they face the dual disadvantages within the labour market based on both their gender and their disability status. This discrepancy cannot be explained by the inability or unwillingness to work. Despite the presence of national legislations and policies that protect the employment right of persons with disabilities, however, employment of persons with disabilities still lags far behind that of persons without disabilities. This current reality indicates the presence of several barriers that prevent the economic empowerment of individuals with disabilities, which include attitudinal, organizational as well as the inaccessibility of the labour market. Persons with disabilities and women face barriers to start their own business, scale up their existing small and medium enterprise, and access opportunities for training, networking and funding. As many traditional job opportunities are not accessible for persons with disabilities, starting a business in many cases is a need. Entrepreneurship remains one of the key pillars that can support youth, women and persons with disabilities achieve economic empowerment and independent living within the community. It can also have a snowball effect and create jobs for other persons with disabilities. However, this pillar has not been explored and supported to its fullest potential. In this context ESCWA is implementing a project on The Economic Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in the Arab region aiming at increasing the economic participation for persons with disabilities in the Arab Region by addressing policy and technology barriers. The project focuses on supporting ESCWA Member States to create inclusive employment policies. This involves developing knowledge products highlighting best practices, using the ESCWA Skills Monitor to identify skills gaps, and creating a