The Fifth Session of the Working Group on the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities was held on 21 and 22 February 2019 at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) in Bangkok, Thailand. It was organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Following the adoption of the Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific, ESCAP launched a project to support member States’ capacity building to collect quality disability data for the Incheon Strategy indicators. Several capacity building activities were implemented under the project, including a series of national stakeholder consultations in 17 countries to review the national statistical systems from a disability perspective and devise national action plans.

Persons with disabilities in Asia and the Pacific often fail to be included within social protection schemes, increasing their likelihood of living in poverty.  Available data reveals

A national stakeholder consultation on disability data collection for Incheon Strategy indicators was organized by the Social Development Division of ESCAP in Colombo from 22 to 24 May 2018 under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Primary Industries, Government of Sri Lanka.

The Government of Kyrgyzstan and ESCAP co-organized a three-day national consultation on disability data collection in Bishkek from 2 to 4 May 2018 with the main purpose of assessing existing data gaps and evaluating the Government’s overall capacity to generate reliable disability statistics for reporting on the Incheon Strategy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

ESCAP and the Government of Azerbaijan, through the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population, jointly organized a national stakeholder consultation on disability data collection for Incheon Strategy indicators in Baku from 23 to 26 April 2018.

The main objectives of the consultation were two-fold, i.e.: (i) to review the national statistical system in Azerbaijan from the disability perspective; and (ii) to build the government capacity to collect more reliable and comparable disability data for the Incheon Strategy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Government of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) committed to enhance the protection and promotion of the human rights of persons with disabilities by ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in December 2016. To review the national statistical system from the disability perspective, the Government invited the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to organize a national stakeholder consultation on disability data collection in Palikir, Pohnpei from 3 to 5 April 2018.

The Government of Pakistan invited ESCAP to co-organize a national stakeholder consultation on disability data collection in Islamabad, Pakistan from 27 February to 1 March 2018. Accordingly, a three-day consultation took place involving senior policymakers, statisticians and disability experts from government agencies, disabled people’s organizations and UN agencies located in Pakistan.

Following agencies participated in the consultation:

The High-level Intergovernmental Meeting on the Midpoint Review of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 2013-2022, was organized by ESCAP in cooperation with the Government of China through China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF) from 27 November to 1 December 2017 in Beijing.

A national consultation on disability statistics and Incheon Strategy indicators was organized by ESCAP in Nay Pyi Taw from 27 to 29 June 2017 in cooperation with the Union Government of Myanmar through the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement. The purpose of the consultation was to review the national statistical system from disability perspective and assess the progress, challenges and gaps in Myanmar’s disability policy and data collection.