4 December 2007
Addis Ababa — Despite significant progress in recent years in improving their livelihoods, new efforts are needed to break down barriers that still prevent millions of people with disabilities from working and contributing to the economic growth of their societies, ILO said on Monday marking the International Day of Disabled Persons.
The report entitled "The right to decent work of persons with disabilities" says such significant and sustained efforts are vital, not only to promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities in employment, rural development and poverty reduction programmes, but also in moving toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals for halving poverty by the year 2015.
The ILO estimates that some 650 million people -or one out of every 10people in the world-has a disability, and that of these, approximately 470 million are of working age.
While many are successfully employed and fully integrated into society, people with disabilities as a group often face disproportionate levels of poverty and unemployment.
"There is a strong link between disability and poverty", the new ILO report says, adding that an estimated 80per cent of all people with disabilities in the world live in developing countries.
Of these, it says some 426 million live below the poverty line and often represent the 15-to-20 per cent most vulnerable and marginalized poor in such countries.
"Decent work is the ILO's primary goal for everyone, including people with disabilities," says ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. "When we promote the rights and dignity of people with disabilities, we are empowering individuals, enriching societies and strengthening economies." Citing World Bank studies estimating that social exclusion from the workplace costs the global economy between US$1.37 to US$1.94 trillion in estimated annual loss in GDP2/, the ILO Skills and Employability Department added that "providing decent work for people with disabilities thus makes social as well as economic sense".
The new ILO report highlights many challenges faced by people with disabilities in the world of work, including: concentration in low-level, low-paid jobs; lack of adequate representation at higher levels; problems of access to workplace areas, transportation and housing; the risk of losing benefits on starting work; and prejudices among co-workers, employers and the general public.
It also says people with disabilities in the world of work tend to experience higher unemployment and have lower earnings than persons without disabilities, or are often underemployed.
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