Outcomes of first Pacific Islands Forum disability meet
Updated
A better deal for disabled people around the Pacific region was the focus for a meeting now completed in Cook Islands. The Forum Disability Ministers Meeting was the first meeting of it's kind to be convened by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.
About 800-thousand people in forum countries, excluding Australia and New Zealand, have some form of disability. Dr Helen Tavola, the Social Policy Adviser for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, is discussing some of the meeting's findings.
Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Dr Helen Tavola, Social Policy Adviser for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat
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TAVOLA: I guess the main outcome was ministers have adopted and endorsed a Pacific regional strategy on disability which has over a five to six years an implementation period and this would be used or hopefully would be used as a tool for countries implementation at the national level and in addition for regional activities will support national activities.
COUTTS: Well, what were some of the components of the strategy?
TAVOLA: The first one is to strengthen political leadership and to create an enabling environment, because it has recognised without political leadership, it just will not move ahead. And this includes advocating for the signing and ratification and implementation of the newly adopted United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and also to create a disability policy and legislation and so forth. And so that is the high level government leadership which we hope that this meeting has helped to generate.
COUTTS: So what are you actually asking the leaders to do though, apart from policy and legislation? Should there be awareness campaigns to go with that?
TAVOLA: Yes, definitely and also to allocate funds in all key budget areas for disability and increase the policy and programs, and that includes in health, education and so forth and also in employment.
COUTTS: Now this was a fairly high level delegation that was at the Ministers Meeting, but was anyone contacted that actually is disabled or works for disability organisations on the ground and is at the coal face if you like to find out what their needs are as they see it?
TAVOLA: Yes, there was a person from each country, a representative of the Disabled Persons Organisation and as well as that, there were about three representatives from the Pacific Forum which is a network of disability NGOs in the region. And they had a whole session presenting to the ministers on the role of non-governmental organisations and they also were able to make a statement. So they had a very participatory role. And in addition to that, one of the key note speakers was Mr Graham Inglis, who is a Disability Rights Commissioner from Australia, himself a person with a disability and that was a very powerful key note.
COUTTS: Why, what did he say?
TAVOLA: Well, I mean was really advocating for human rights for persons with disabilities and challenging the ministers to do this and I think they were coming from him a very strong voice and this whole meeting had a human rights focus. So it has been quite a challenge for countries that find this a complex issue.
COUTTS: So what are the immediate needs that need to be met for the people who are disabled right across the region?
TAVOLA: Well, the immediate needs are in education in particular, because very few children with disabilities get to school at any point and also for assisted devices which are very basic, which people from Australia and New Zealand would just completely take for granted - wheelchairs, glasses, hearing aids and so forth.
