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Disability
Disability
Challenges and Opportunities
Asia and the Pacific alone is home to around 650 million persons with disabilities, i.e. nearly two-thirds of the world’s population of persons with disabilities. The number is expected to rise over the next decades due to several key factors including population ageing, natural disasters, chronic health conditions, road traffic injuries and poor working conditions. Despite the constant increase in their number, persons with disabilities tend to be unseen, unheard and uncounted and are therefore among the most marginalized in society, of which most live in poverty and are discriminated against. A major explanation for this situation is that they have not been given enough policy attention. By the end of 2012, the Asia-Pacific region recorded the lowest level of signature and ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in the world, with 36 Signatories and 27 States Parties that account respectively for 72 and 54 per cent of ESCAP members as compared to the world’s average of 79 and 65 per cent. A fundamental challenge is the lack of reliable and comparable data on the situation of persons with disabilities, which prevents governments strengthening the evidence-base to design, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of disability policies and programmes.
Our Response
Building on the achievements of the past two consecutive Asian and Pacific Decades of Disabled Persons (1993-2002, 2003-2012), ESCAP is promoting the full realization of the rights of persons with disabilities and disability-inclusive development in the new Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 2013-2022. Governments of the ESCAP region adopted, at a High-level Intergovernmental Meeting (29 October – 2 November 2012, Incheon, Republic of Korea), the Ministerial Declaration on the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 2013-2022, and the Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific. The Incheon Strategy is a pioneering regional framework that will guide national and regional action in the new Decade. It is derived from the experiences of the ESCAP region and based on the principles of the CRPD and comprises 10 specific time-bound disability-inclusive development goals, 27 targets and 62 indicators similar to the MDG structure. In the new Decade, ESCAP will focus on strengthening the Asia-Pacific’s evidence base and continue harnessing region-wide partnership among governments, organizations of, and for, persons with disabilities, other civil society organizations, development agencies, intergovernmental organizations and the United Nations systems.
Our Work
(A) Working Group on the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 2013-2022
(B) Strengthening the evidence base
(C) “Make the Right Real” Campaign
(D) ESCAP-Sasakawa Award for Disability-inclusive Business in Asia and the Pacific
(E) Disability-inclusion in the post-2015 development agenda
(F) Advocacy and awareness creation
(G) Building partnerships
To promote the full and effective implementation of the new Decade, 2013-2022, ESCAP will work closely with the Working Group on the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities. The membership of the Working Group consists of 15 Governments and 15 Civil Society Organizations that will provide technical advice and support to members and associate members.
(B) Strengthening the evidence base
ESCAP will take stock of national baseline disability data for the Incheon Strategy Indicators and build government capacities to collect, compile and process data.
(C) “Make the Right Real” Campaign
The campaign aims to accelerate ratifications and implementation by member States of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
(D) ESCAP-Sasakawa Award for Disability-inclusive Business in Asia and the Pacific
The Award was developed to: publicly recognize and reward businesses that demonstrate good practices in responding to the needs of persons with disabilities in their business operations; raise awareness regarding the opportunities available to the private sector for inclusion of persons with disabilities in businesses; and catalyse Asia-Pacific leadership in disability-inclusive business. The first Award will be conferred on 3 December 2013 in conjunction with the commemoration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
(E) Disability-inclusion in the post-2015 development agenda
In support of the global initiative to include the disability dimension in the post-2015 development agenda, ESCAP, in collaboration with its members and associate members, endeavours to consolidate the Asia-Pacific Input towards integrating persons with disabilities in the emerging international sustainable development goals. In May 2013, it supported the organization of a regional consultation by the Government of Thailand that resulted in the “Bangkok Consensus” for the General Assembly High-level Meeting on Disability and Development (New York, 23 September 2013).
(F) Advocacy and awareness creation
To raise awareness among policy makers and the disability community at large in Asian and Pacific countries on the CRPD and the Incheon Strategy, ESCAP will, in consultation with Asia-Pacific Champions of Disability Rights and Promoters for the new Decade, promote the CRPD and publish the Incheon Strategy in accessible formats for all persons with diverse disabilities.
(G) Building partnerships
For the full implementation of the Incheon Strategy through provision of technical assistance and capacity building activities, ESCAP is promoting partnerships with Governments, national disability coordination mechanisms and disability focal points, organizations for, and of, persons with disabilities, as well as intergovernmental organizations and United Nations systems.