Making the SDGs Sustainable for All
Last month, I joined an experiment in global change making. UNLEASH Innovation Lab 2017 brought together 1,000 remarkable individuals from across the globe with the intention to create innovative solutions to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. This unifying vision was notable in a deliberately diverse talent pool. The UNLEASH “talents” came from 129 countries. I found myself speaking with a data scientist from Nepal and then the next moment sharing a laugh with an urban planner from Brazil.
I arrived at UNLEASH expecting to be an outlier within this diverse group. No, my background in social impact, Corporate Social Responsibility, and public policy wasn’t vastly different than some attendees. However, as an individual who uses a motorized wheelchair due to a degenerative muscle condition, I, and a few other participants with disabilities, stood out in a crowd that sought to be representative of communities across the world.
Unlike other events I’ve attended, I was pleased to find that the global challenges (and contributions) related to disability were acknowledged during the event. Microsoft, a key partner for UNLEASH and sponsor of the Education and ICT track, highlighted key education disparities for the 1 billion people with disabilities across the world and encouraged UNLEASH talents to ideate around solutions for the world’s largest minority. In fact, the winning idea of the Education and ICT track, Hear-oes, is a promising platform to connect sign language interpreters with a Deaf client, on an as-needed, virtual basis. Microsoft’s sponsorship is just one example of their leadership related to accessibility and education, particularly for the disability community.
I was also heartened that UNLEASH planned for, and coordinated, access needs nearly flawlessly. Through communication and planning, they ensured that the 1,000 participants, including those with disabilities, navigated around Denmark effectively.
It was a conversation with the CEO of UNLEASH that made me realize just how significant it was that I felt included and UNLEASH’s quick learning curve about accommodation and accessibility. He shared that before we were accepted to the program, his team did not explicitly consider that people with disabilities would be a part of the 1,000 participating talents. People with disabilities make up over 1/5th of the world’s population. That would be like organizing UNLEASH and not considering that a single talent would come from China and the United States, who, together, make up for roughly a fifth of the world’s population.
This is not uncommon. While trends are changing, policymakers, foundations, and multinational aid organizations have not intentionally addressed the unique needs of the disability community (such as societal isolation and structural and social access) and instead have haphazardly supported people with disabilities as they support other communities.
I see UNLEASH as the driving force for positive change in the next 13 years. The 1,000 participants are returning to their homes motivated, connected, and ready to engage their networks and organizations in tangible, accelerated work towards meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals. I have no doubt that the innovations that give the world a fighting chance to slow climate change, eradicate hunger, and decrease poverty will come from UNLEASH participants. The ripples from this multinational effort will be far-reaching and the movement is just starting. For too long, people with disabilities have been left out of development efforts worldwide. Thus, it is no surprise that people with disabilities, as a whole, have the highest rates of poverty, lowest rates of employment and education, and face barriers due to lack of access, low expectations, and even forced institutionalization.
Now UNLEASH has an opportunity — and an obligation — to support the most vulnerable and largest minority across the world in the following ways. They can bring attention to how organizations working on the SDGs can ensure their efforts are inclusive of people with disabilities. They can intentionally partner with international disability-focused organizations so that at least1/5 of the 2018 participants have a disability. They can also increase disability representation by asking existing partner organizations to nominate individuals with disabilities to the program — making explicit the need for those organizations to hire people with disabilities. They can outline and adopt standardized accommodation practices, from the application process onward. They can include disability in their statement of nondiscrimination. UNLEASH can explicitly promote looking at the UN Sustainable Development Goals through a disability lens by establishing a track related to inclusion and access in 2018. By understanding how disability is intrinsically linked to questions of climate change and displacement, they can understand and learn the ways that disabled people are often the first points of contact and knowledge-holders with regards to how incarceration, climate change, and poverty disproportionately affect people with disabilities and their communities.
At UNLEASH Lab 2018, I look forward to a speaker — whether they are royalty, a politician, a celebrity or an entrepreneur — looking out in the crowd and not only seeing 1,000 intelligent, inspiring change makers, but also noticing a sign language interpreter by the stage, individuals in wheelchairs or using crutches dispersed in the crowd, service dogs napping by their owners, and individuals wearing sunglasses, but enjoying the verbal description of the slides being projected. And perhaps that speaker herself wheeled onto the stage.
