China Inclusive Businesses Forum and Launching Ceremony of the ILO Global Business and Disability Network (GBDN) China Chapter

To support companies in increasing their opportunities to promote disability inclusion in China, the ILO GBDN will launch its GBDN-China Chapter in Beijing, and invite CEOs of its founding members to sign the GBDN-China Charter.

Background

The ILO Global Business and Disability Network (GBDN) is a unique employers-led worldwide network of multinational companies, national employers’ organizations, business networks and disabled people’s organizations (DPOs) working in collaboration to promote the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the workplace.

Since 2013, some major national and multinational companies and organizations, work closely the GBDN, in collaboration with the ILO Beijing and the China Enterprises Confederation, organized business and disability meetings and peer to peer discussions in China.

During those discussions, those companies see the growing “business case” on inclusion of persons with disabilities in terms of improving the workplace, employee retention, its products, and brand. Companies find that those events give them a chance to highlight a different side of their business. The pioneers of those companies in China, in discussion with GBDN, would like to form a coalition with the ILO and establish the GBDN-China network, to advocate for a more enabling environment for private sector inclusion of persons with disabilities.

The ILO GBDN-China is a national-level, company-driven network that supports businesses to succeed in and benefit from disability inclusion through collaboration.

Topics for discussion

  • How to promote employment of persons with disabilities
  • How to bridge the skill gap of persons with disabilities in businesses
  • How to build diversity and disability inclusive culture in the workplaces