Members

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The K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability conducts research, and provides training, technical assistance and online resources to promote workplace disability inclusion both nationally and globally. In addition to the inclusive workplace focus, the Yang-Tan Institute has a wide variety of resources and initiatives relating to public policy on employment and disability, school-to-work and community transition, inclusive education, healthy living, and community participation.

Disabled People’s Organisations Denmark (DPOD) is an umbrella organisation of 33 Danish national disability organizations. DPOD is strongly committed to engaging in efforts that serve to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities in developing countries, including their right to work on an equal basis with others. In close collaboration with its member organizations, DPOD supports the development of vibrant, representative and inclusive disability movements that are able to advance the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and hold governments and other duty bearers effectively to account.

For nearly 35 years, HI has worked together with people with disabilities and vulnerable populations to meet their basic needs, improve their quality of life and advocate for their human rights. HI’s work includes the promotion of wage employment and self-employment of persons with disabilities through project implementation in partnership with businesses, government, vocational training centers and non-profit organizations in more than 30 countries across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.

The International Disability Alliance (IDA) is an alliance of eight global and six regional organizations of persons with disabilities. IDA advocates at the UN for a more inclusive global environment for persons with disabilities and their organizations. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is IDA’s touchstone. IDA is invested in ensuring that the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals are inclusive and in line with the CRPD. IDA supports organizations of persons with disabilities worldwide to take part in UN and international human rights processes, and use international accountability mechanisms.

Leonard Cheshire Disability is a UK registered charity and one of the largest pan-disability civil society organizations, giving them a strong voice with which to foster and influence profound change. They possess a powerful understanding of disability developed over 65 years, through five regional offices in Africa and Asia, as well as a deeply-rooted network of over 200 Leonard Cheshire Global Alliance members in 54 countries. Leonard Cheshire Disability has a proud record of having a positive and lasting impact on the lives of persons with disabilities worldwide through inclusive programming delivered by local partners, advocacy initiatives and a world-renowned research facility.

Light for the World is an international organization with Austria, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland as core members, and Belgium and the Netherlands as associate members. Light for the World has country offices in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mozambique, as well as an EU office in Brussels. Their programmes in 15 countries strengthen the rights of persons with disabilities, enabling them to lead a self-sustaining life, and reducing systemic poverty by including persons with disabilities.

Sightsavers is an international non-governmental organization working to prevent avoidable blindness, support equality for people with disabilities and advocate for change. They have over 65 years of experience in disability inclusive development and currently work in over 30 countries, partnering with local, regional and national partners, ministries, governments and non-governmental groups. An example of Sightsavers’ major successes include the Connecting the Dots project, supporting the economic empowerment of young men and women with disabilities in Uganda. The project has won an award from the Zero Project for its impact, innovation and scalability.

The Inclusive Design and Accessibility (IDEA) Hub is committed to being the premiere cooperative research lab on inclusive design and accessibility. Through research and student-based projects, the IDEA Hub provides resources that promote inclusive design and accessibility to the global community and is dedicated to helping businesses and other organizations increase their engagement of people with differing abilities worldwide. Through student engagement and high-quality research, the IDEA Hub applies both theory and practice in making a positive impact on the world.

The Australian Network on Disability (AND) is an organization funded by Australian private and public employers, established to advance the inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of business. The AND aims to support its members and other organizations to change their internal behaviours, attitudes and systems, and increase their knowledge so that they can confidently engage with disabled persons. The organization has over 100 members from a range of sectors, including banking, retail, education, recruitment, professional services, manufacturing and public administration.

The Austrian DisAbility Business Forum is the largest business-to-business network connecting disability and business in Austria. Its vision is to make the business community a driving force in creating an equal society. The Austrian DisAbility Business Forum builds “disAbility confidence” by empowering its members to fully realize the potential of disabled people as clients and employees. To this end, its inclusive team organizes networking events for peer-to-peer exchange of disability knowledge and best practices. The Austrian DisAbility Business Forum also provides support with advisory services and awareness-building workshops and seminars. The Austrian DisAbility Business Forum is managed by the multiple award-winning social entrepreneurship myAbility.

Bangladesh Business and Disability Network (BBDN) is a unique network of employers and employers’ associations formed in collaboration with disability organizations, NGOs and development partners, with a purpose of creating a more disability inclusive workforce in Bangladesh. BBDN is the first network of its kind in Bangladesh, bringing together the various stakeholders involved with disability inclusion to focus on generating employment for people with disabilities, raising awareness about the business case for hiring people with disabilities and serving as the collective voice of employers in the policy discourse. While the Network is led by and targeted towards employers, there is a concerted effort to establish links between the demand and supply side stakeholders to facilitate knowledge sharing on successes and challenges and to promote collaboration.

The Rede Empresarial de Inclusão Social (Business Network for Social Inclusion) is the first and only business group exclusively dedicated to disability inclusion in the workplace in Brazil. Led by Serasa Experian, the network’s current 58 multinational and Brazilian member companies develop joint products, debate and share experiences and difficulties encountered in hiring and training persons with disabilities, and actively engage public authorities on these issues.

Canadian Business SenseAbility is a national not-for-profit business network that offers expertise and resources to help businesses across Canada turn disability into business opportunity. It offers one-stop source of information and advice on disability inclusion from a Canadian business perspective.

The Red de Empresas Inclusivas (Inclusive Business Network) is hosted by the Federation of Chilean Industry (SOFOFA) and aims to encourage, advise and collaborate with companies on the inclusion of people with disabilities. The network relies on a collaborative approach between the business sector, public authorities and civil society.

The 14 founding members of GBDN-China have agreed on strategies to reach out to interested stakeholders and to tackle the challenges that companies face when hiring and retaining persons with disabilities. Through the sharing of experiences and best practices, GBDN-China gathers knowledge and expertise that is disseminated among its members.

The Red de Empresas Inclusivas (Inclusive Business Network) is a network of more than 60 companies in Costa Rica created with the purpose of promoting the hiring of people with disabilities, exchanging good practices between members and improving the image of the working population with disabilities in the country. This network is an initiative from the Costa Rican Business Association for Development (Asociación Empresarial para el Desarrollo), supported by the OAS, ILO, UNDP and the Ministry of Labour of Costa Rica.

The Ethiopian Business and Disability Network (EBDN) addresses disability as a diversity issue from a private-sector perspective. It does this through information and knowledge sharing, joint action, improving the technical skills of members, their networks and staff, and through corporate social responsibility activities. It assists local companies to adapt products and services to the needs of customers with disabilities.

The UnternehmensForum is a nationwide and cross-sectoral network of companies which aims to enable people with disabilities to participate fully in working life. To this end, the network is developing measures and recommendations for recruiting as well as developing the skills of people with disabilities. The network also promotes examples of best practice. The approach is centred on the employers’ desire to use all the opportunities and potential available to them.

The India Business and Disability Network (IBDN) is a joint initiative by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Employers’ Federation of India (EFI) and the ILO for industry to engage, enable and empower persons with disabilities. IBDN is a one-stop solution to promote disability inclusion at the workplace.

With support from the ILO, five companies established the Indonesia Business and Disability Network (IBDN) in Jakarta in December 2016. THE IBDN’s mission is to encourage business communities in Indonesia to be more inclusive and conducive for disability inclusion through exchange of information and experiences as well as sustainable and mutually beneficial programme collaboration between companies.

Business Mauritius is an independent association that represents over 1,200 local businesses and has a national, regional and international reach. Business Mauritius is the coordinating body and the voice of local business, and delivers services that sustain the progress of both business and community.

Movimiento Congruencia is an initiative of the Mexican business sector which, together with social organizations and educational institutions, aims to provide equal opportunities and inclusion of person with disabilities in the workplace. The companies that participate in Movimiento Congruencia recognize the benefits of the diverse talent that people with disabilities represent and are eager to share their practices with other organizations.

Advocating for enterprise and promoting the voice of thousands of businesses across New Zealand, BusinessNZ works for positive change through new thinking, productivity and innovation.

Peru – Red Peruana de Empresas y Discapacidad

Established with support from the ILO, the Red Peruana de Empresas y Discapacidad (Peruvian Business and Disability Network) aims to promote strategic cooperation among employers, persons with disabilities and government authorities, so that decent and productive work for people with disabilities becomes a reality in the country.

The Qaderoon Network is an organization that aims to provide guidance, advice, training and best practice examples to employers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with a view to facilitating the recruitment and retention of employees with disabilities through favourable government policy and disability confident work environments. Qaderoon works in coordination with multiple stakeholders, including governmental entities, the private sector and non-profit organizations.

South African Employers for Disability (SAE4D) is a non-profit business network that promotes recruitment, retention and skills development for people with disabilities in the workplace in South Africa. It helps its members to confidently address the array of issues and questions that arise in creating effective inclusion practices and policies, especially where compliance with the South African legal framework is concerned.

Sponsored by Fundación ONCE and the European Social Fund, the Foro Inserta Responsable (FIR) is a business network in Spain that provides its members with an open space for social innovation. Its main goal is to promote training and employment for people with disabilities and share good CSR and disability inclusion practices. FIR helps and encourages companies to employ people with disabilities, and its members receive a wide range of HR services through FSC Inserta. FIR currently has more than 80 members, including multinational companies, prominent business schools, disability movement representatives and CSR think tanks.

The Employers’ Federation of Ceylon (EFC), with funding from the ILO, developed the Employers’ Network on Disability with the objective of facilitating employment and training opportunities in the private sector for disabled job seekers.The Network was officially launched in the year 2000 and its objective is to create links between the business community and organizations dealing with disability issues to facilitate mainstreaming its work.

Business Disability Forum is a not-for-profit member organization that makes it easier and more rewarding to do business with and employ disabled people. It builds disability-smart organizations to improve business performance by increasing confidence, accessibility, productivity and profitability. This is done by bringing together business people, disabled opinion leaders and government to understand what needs to change if disabled people are to be treated fairly so that they can contribute to business success, to society and to economic growth.

The National Business & Disability Council (NBDC) at The Viscardi Center is an employer organization and comprehensive resource for disability best practices. Its corporate partners are predominantly Fortune 1000 companies and government employers committed to disability diversity.

DERES’ mission is to achieve that the Uruguayan business sector implements sustainable and inclusive management through the adoption of CSR concepts and practices, including with regards to persons with disabilities.

The Zambia Business and Disability Network (ZBDN) aims at raising awareness among employers about the positive relationship between the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace and business success.