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Sama Osama – Ahram Online
The Egyptian Ministry of Social Solidarity has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the British Council to support persons with disabilities and to train and prepare them for the labour market, especially in entrepreneurship and the creative economy.
The two parties announced their new ‘Innovation Challenges for People with Disabilities’ initiative, which aims to explore solutions to barriers to the employment of persons with disabilities through the idea of “participatory innovation.”
The winning ideas will be supported and guided through incubators and funding opportunities, or by linking them to clients or partnerships, in order to create sustainable start-ups that integrate people with disabilities.
Deputy Minister of Social Solidarity Nevine Kabbaj stressed that this initiative will provide greater opportunities for the ministry and its governmental and non-governmental partners to identify causes of the reluctance of some people with disabilities to join the workforce, and also why employers do not accept them sometimes.
Kabbaj referred to recent data released by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) for 2018 stating that people with disabilities make up 10.6% of the population, and that the ‘Law of Persons with Disabilities No. 10 of 2018’ states that people with disabilities have the right to 5% of the total workforce.
