The Zero Project Network

Over the past decade, Zero Project has established a global network of 10,000+ experts, policy makers, corporates, academics, and other persons with and without disabilities who are advancing the implementation of the CRPD. This network contributes to the Zero Project’s work and continues to grow, fostering a global community for disability inclusion.

It is the diversity in relationships that makes the Zero Project Network unique and effective: cross-sectoral impact of inclusive solutions, global knowledge transfer, and the engagement of decision-makers with experts to effectively steer inclusion in our society, are just some examples of how the Zero Project Network actively helps to remove barriers:

Organizations that seek to formally partner with the Zero Project do so via the Zero Project Scaling Solutions Programme: by joining as a partner, they actively support the replication of innovative solutions in their respective fields of expertise or country. ​

Since 2013, the United Nations in Vienna through the UN Office at Vienna (UNOV), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Essl Foundation, have been working together to realize the United Nations’ commitment to building a better world for people with disabilities.

In 2023, the UN in Vienna and the Essl Foundation celebrated ten years of partnership:

“As we mark the 10th anniversary of our partnership with the Essl Foundation working on the Zero Project, we must continue to strive for a world with zero barriers for people with disabilities. We must ensure that their voices are heard at all levels of policymaking. This lies at the heart of the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to “leave no one behind”. The Zero Project and its annual Conference in Vienna provide a platform to deliver on this promise. I look forward to continuing our important work with the Essl Foundation, as we engage with key sectors of society to develop accessible and innovative solutions for people with disabilities.”

Ghada Waly, Director-General of UNOV and Executive Director of UNODC

Read the joint press release

For the Essl Foundation and the Zero Project, the partnership with UNOV/UNODC is embedded in a broad and strategic cooperation with the United Nations: 

• The Essl Foundation has consultative status with ECOSOC since 2014, with access to not only ECOSOC, but also to its many subsidiary bodies, and to the various human rights mechanisms of the United Nations.  
• Since 2012, the Zero Project organizes several Side Events at annual Conference of State Parties of UN DESA in the UN Headquarters in New York, also at Side Events of meetings of the OHCHR in Geneva. 
• The Zero Project was invited to join various joint activities with diverse United Nations agencies, like in the consultation process for the Sustainable Development Goals in Paris 2014, at the UN Habitat Conferences in Quito (2016), Nairobi (2015) and WUF in Katowice (2022).  
• The Zero Project is in constant cooperation with the ITU, the ILO Global Disability Network, UNDP, OHCHR and WHO, related to mutual projects, publications, and Conferences. 
• The Zero Project contributed to United Nations publications, such as the 2018 UN Flagship Report on Disability and Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, over 65 global good practices were collected, analyzed, and submitted to the 2023 UN Disability and Development Report, which will be published in June 2023 during COSP16. These contributions are complemented by the active assistance in the 2016 Good Practices of Accessible Urban Development report published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 

The Zero Project Conference has been hosted at the UN in Vienna since 2014. It has become a unique global meeting place to innovate for disability inclusion.

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