Years after the passage of the 2017 Rights of Persons with Disabilities Law, with the aim to achieve inclusive social protection, the social protection system still faces many obstacles, including those related to health, education, and employment issues.

In order to build trust and strengthen cooperation and communication between the various stakeholders concerned with the access of persons with disabilities to inclusive social protection programs, and to discuss the challenges they face, in addition to identifying priorities that should be worked on, the Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD), within the series of social dialogue and in cooperation with the International Labor Organization, and with funding by the European Union, held a panel discussion under the title: “Inclusive Social Protection for Persons with Disabilities”, on Sunday, January 28, 2024, with the participation of government agencies, civil society, trade unions, and the private sector.

The Dean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences at Al al-Bayt University, Dr. Saleh Al-Sharafat, who moderated the dialogue with the participants, stressed the importance of addressing the challenges facing persons with disabilities in Jordan, who constitute approximately 22% of the population, in order to reach a rights-based social security system, pointing to the lack of funding necessary to include them in many sectors, which results in their lacking of the required qualification and training.

Al-Sharafat explained that Jordan ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008. However, people with disabilities still deal with multiple burdens, such as poverty, low income, lack of healthcare, and lack of job opportunities, which requires the development of a protection system that’s inclusive of persons with disabilities, and enrolling them all in the Social Security Institution, in addition to their inclusion in all education, rehabilitation, health, and parenting services, in light of the high financial costs of private institutions and the inability of parents to keep up with the cost of securing such services for them.

During the discussions, the experts and specialists participating in the session agreed on the need to provide a set of guidelines for persons with disabilities and employers to regulate the relationship between them. Moreover, they stressed the importance of paying attention to the repercussions of natural disasters, climate change, wars, and crises, and the new disabilities they may produce in the near future, calling at the same time for periodic review of the laws of the Ministry of Social Development to suit their needs and rights.

The participants also saw that the problem of persons with disabilities in Jordan lies in how to properly apply legal legislation, so it is important to focus on reviewing legislation and re-evaluating social protection strategies. In addition to that, it is necessary to have environments prepared for persons with disabilities in institutions and recreational facilities. Furthermore, the participants called on all government ministries to allocate budgets for people with disabilities, and to pay attention to the issue of schools that lack accessibility for them and that are not prepared to include them in the educational process, all the way to the importance of implementing the inclusive education strategy correctly.

In their view, there is poor coordination between providers of social protection services, in addition to the absence of a stimulating environment for people with disabilities, which makes it difficult to integrate them into societies. They also pointed out that the Kingdom has 32 centers to shelter people with disabilities, five of which are public centers, two are charity, and 27 are private, which confirms our need to develop an inclusive preventive system for people with disabilities, and to protect them from violence, harassment, and physical and sexual assaults, while providing their needs in the fields of rehabilitation, health, and community integration.

The participants concluded that it is necessary to strengthen the societal culture towards the inclusion of persons with disabilities and provide them with the best services, especially in inclusive care and education, and to provide them with employment opportunities in the public and private sectors, as it is essential for their full integration; hence empowering them. This is a journey that requires commitment and collective effort to ensure a more inclusive society and access to social protection.

In conclusion, it is important for all entities to provide procedures and facilities to enable persons with disabilities to access services and opportunities free of discrimination and obstacles, as well as education about their rights and the challenges they face, and to pledge to protect the rights of these individuals and their equal opportunities and fair treatment in society.