(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Jordan's Minister of Social Development, Wafa Bani Mustafa affirmed that the Second World Summit for Social Development, currently underway in Doha, holds great importance not only for the Arab region but for the entire world, serving as a reminder of the social development agenda, which is often overshadowed by other global priorities.
In remarks to Qatar News Agency (QNA) on the sidelines of her participation in the Second World Summit for Social Development, Jordan's Minister of Social Development explained that this session comes at a time not far from the completion of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Agenda, through which countries of the world are expected to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by all United Nations member states.
She highlighted the importance of the State of Qatar's hosting of the Summit and of issuing, according to the agreement of the participating countries, a Doha Political Declaration. She noted that the discussions focused on key issues related to social protection, employment opportunities, youth care, empowerment of women and persons with disabilities, in addition to the importance of early preparedness for social responses to crises and shocks. She emphasized that this summit represents a true opportunity to learn from various experiences and to develop national mechanisms for social response.
Regarding her country's efforts in the issue of persons with disabilities, she told QNA that Jordan is one of the pioneering countries in integrating persons with disabilities into society. She pointed out that Jordan hosted the Third Global Disability Summit (GDS 2025) earlier this year, which resulted in the "Amman-Berlin Declaration," one of the declarations that highlighted the importance of inclusion, integration, and the allocation of budgets within national development programs.
She underlined that the Jordanian Ministry of Social Development works on disability issues as part of an integrated national system, specializing in the transition from institutional and residential care to family and community-based alternative care. This approach, she said, is at the core of the integration process and aims to prevent the exclusion and isolation of persons with disabilities.
She also referred to Jordan's Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2017, which led to the creation of a national strategy and a ten-year plan aimed at ending institutional care by the end of 2027.
She noted that, as a leadership of the National Social Protection Strategy, the Ministry of Social Development oversees an important pillar called "FORSA" (Opportunity), which includes an executive plan for the employment of persons with disabilities. This initiative focuses on qualifying and training this group for decent and empowering job opportunities, enabling them to achieve the main goal of living independently, she added.
Jordan's Minister of Social Development, Wafa Bani Mustafa, stressed the importance of early investment in enhancing social services and in training and rehabilitating persons with disabilities, with the aim of reducing future costs and empowering this group to have independent sources of income and to live just like any other segment of society.

Second World Summit for Social Development 2025 global priorities

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