Programme :
Opening statement
by Mr Shigeru Mochida Deputy Executive Secretary and Officer-in-Charge, a.i.
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)
UN ESCAP Workshop on Community Based Rehabilitation
5 July 2005, Bangkok
Excellencies,
Participants,
Ladies and Gentleman,
On behalf the ILO I wish you a good morning and a heartfelt welcome to
Bangkok.
I first want to thank ESCAP for inviting me to participate in these
opening ceremonies and for organizing this very important meeting on
Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR). The ILO has been involved in CBR since
1980. We have funded more than 25 technical cooperation projects and
continue to operate CBR programmes in cooperation with governments
worldwide. These projects strengthen the capacity of CBR programmes to
provide vocational skills and work opportunities for youth and adults with
disabilities, with particular attention to women with disabilities.
CBR is one of many strategies that can contribute to poverty reduction
and the achievement of Millennium Development Goals and Biwako Millennium
Framework targets related to the eradication of poverty. While the ILO
focuses on skills and employment, we fully recognize the barriers that
people with disabilities face in accessing health care, education and the
very resources and services that will predispose disabled persons to succeed
economically. Therefore, we believe that CBR approaches should be holistic
and adapted to the country’s social and economic context. They should
however, include access to education, appropriate training and capital as
well as provide other needed supports. The ILO and its colleagues at the
World Health Organization and UNESCO stressed the need for a multisectoral
approach to CBR in a jointly published position paper in 2004.
Most of you are well aware of ILO Convention 159 concerning Vocational
Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons). This convention calls upon
governments to establish a policy on vocational rehabilitation based on
equal opportunity and equal treatment of disabled persons and in
collaboration with employers and workers representatives as well as disabled
persons and their representatives. The Convention also calls for the
development of services for people with disabilities living in remote and
rural areas. While the CBR approach has application in both urban and rural
areas, the model can be particularly applicable for more remote communities,
where disability rates are higher and poverty is more extreme.
In an effort to learn more about the CBR approach and the elements that
contribute to successful programmes, the ILO, with funding from the Finnish
Government, is currently implementing a research project in several
countries globally. You will learn more about this project later today. It
is the ILO’s hope that the completed project will make a significant
contribution to the further development of CBR as an approach to economic
empowerment and decent work for people with disabilities.
Ladies and Gentleman, as a former labour official in the Japanese
Government, I have worked in the disability field and am aware of the
barriers and obstacles disabled persons face in accessing community
services, including those related to improving their livelihoods. In my
current post, I have become increasingly aware of such barriers faced by
disabled persons throughout the region. The work that you are doing is very
important and I wish you a most successful meeting.
Thank you.
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