Reflections from World Urban Forum 12 Cairo, Egypt
Organised in Cairo, Egypt, between 4 and 8 November 2024, the World Urban Forum 12 was programmatically the most disabled-friendly WUF to date. Kudos to #UNHabitat and the Government of Egypt for having so many disability-related events on the agenda. In this blog, I compiled a collage of engagements I was involved in with my reflections on the event's accessibility.
The most important event for me was the launch of the Global Action Report and the Global Comparison Report🔗 by the @ Global Disability Innovation Hub. A big congratulations to Mikaela Patrick, who lead this research and Iain McKinnon CEO of GDI Hub. The launch was the culmination of work done with 11 local partners since 2020, where #GDIHub has undertaken unique, qualitative, and inclusive research to produce a case study report on six developing cities worldwide. The research focused on People, Policy and Practice. Listening to the voices of local persons with disabilities, talking to practitioners such as architects and planners, and looking at the laws and policies helped to ground the findings in the lived realities of the cities. This first-of-its-kind research report, which I believe will spark global debates and national and local action towards building inclusive cities and support organisations of persons with disabilities to undertake evidence-based advocacy.
From my perspective, the most spectacular part of the event was the first ever #Accessibility2030 pavilion—a space in the Urban Expo owned by the disability stakeholders to showcase the gaps, best practices and importance of disability inclusion in cities. Seated between the GIZ, Habitat for Humanity, and others, the pavilion brought together several agencies working towards building inclusive cities. A shoutout to Annamae Muldowney, my colleague who worked hard to design the pavilion that attracted visitors. Also, thank you to the World Blind Union and other partners for their hard work in getting it up. The pavilion was a bustling place with known and new interested visitors, people with disabilities and events throughout.
Two side events I participated in were;
- ‘Localisation to Close the Global Accessibility Gap - Amplifying voices and stocktaking of innovations, approaches, and local practices to leave no one and no place behind’ hosted by the World Blind Union. Sharing the stage with United Cities and Local Governments and UN-Habitat, I critically reflected on the importance of city and neighbourhood planning with the meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in city planning.
- ‘Health and Age-Friendly Cities’ hosted by the Asian Development Bank. I shared the stage with Stefan Rua, ADB, and representatives from WHO. Age-friendly cities and government representatives from Malaysia and Thailand brought several good practices worldwide. It made me reflect on the overlaps between inclusive and age-friendly cities and the need for partnerships and collaboration to take them forward.
While the forum programme was disability-inclusive, the accessibility provisions were inadequate. While some specific thought was put into providing accessibility, it was incomplete and broken in several places, making it difficult to negotiate and participate with the same ease as others. This seemed to be an outcome of an unintegrated planning process that did not address accessibility initially but as an afterthought. It was a perfect example of how our cities are planned and managed today!
The most noteworthy accessibility feature was the availability of the London black cab by the London Cab Egypt company for wheelchair users to move around the venue. However, the cab service’s operations were lacking, highlighting the importance of operations and maintenance in providing accessibility.
London can Egypt
Overall, from my perspective, the WUF12 was a success, having progressed in bringing many opportunities for disability inclusion discussions. In the future, I would like to see more disability inclusion in all discussions as a cross-cutting issue rather than only on disability-specific events.