The World Bank Safeguards and Disability Expert Meeting On the Management of Social Risk.
World Bank Headquarters, Washington DC
March 19, 2015
As part of the World Bank Safeguards review process, Disabled People’s International participated in the
Expert Meeting on the management of Social Risk . The meeting included representatives of US based
organizations and international organizations working on the issues of vulnerable groups.
DPI was represented by its Arab Regional Office Executive Director Mohammed Loutfy who is also the
co-founder of the World Bank Safeguards and Disability Campaign, an effort started by the Lebanese
Physical Handicapped Union (LPHU) and the Bank Information Center (BIC) to ensure the integration of
disability into the Bank’s safeguard policy. The campaign has been acting a very successful initiative that
resulted into cultivating a welcoming environment at the Bank towards adopting the principles of
inclusion and accessibility into the Safeguard environmental and social assessment standards and its
affiliated annexes.
At the meeting Loutfy made the following remarks emphasizing:
- The need to ensure quality compliance with standards of accessibility and inclusion throughout World
Bank Operations for the Safeguards policy i.e. project investment financing.
- The need for integrating the CRPD within the Safeguard's preamble as one of the main legal
references, to which the Bank would comply to.
- The need for the Bank to explicitly adopt universal design and universal accessibility standards.
- The Bank should ensure inclusive community engagement especially with groups of persons with
disabilities primarily in the Global South whichwould be systematically integrated in the consultation
process throughout all project cycles.
Toward the end of the meeting, the Bank representatives showed a significant interest in Loutfy's
comments. They assured that disability is going to be one of the major issues to be integrated in the
Bank's Safeguards policy. Furthermore, all relevant policy documents and suggestions that were
previously submitted by the Campaign will be considered throughout the next drafting phase.