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ESCAP/CDPF Field Study cum Regional Workshop |
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UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC 29 October 2004 FINAL REPORT[1]UN ESCAP/CDPF Field Study cum Regional Workshop
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I. WORKSHOP OUTCOME
II. PROCEEDINGS OF THE WORKSHOPDay 1 A. Summary of presentations and discussions Opening Session Mr. Luo Xiaohu, Vice-Governor of the Gansu Province, delivered a welcome message on behalf of the Gansu Provincial Government. On behalf of the Gansu Provincial People’s Government, he extended his congratulations to the participants and welcomed official delegates and experts from the Asia-Pacific countries and UNESCAP. Furthermore, he paid his respect to the leaders from the CDPF as well as other central departments and comrades engaged in poverty alleviation across the country. He provided some statistical information: the GDP of the Gansu Province in 2003 totaled around US$ 15.7 billion. The per capita disposable income for urban residents reached US$ 802 and the farmer’s per capita net income was over US$ 200. There are 600,000 poor disabled people who have secured their basic living since the implementation of the Ninth Five-Year plan. The living standard for PWDs in Gansu province has seen a remarkable improvement. He added that the commencement of this workshop in Lanzhou represented the concern and support by UNESCAP for the work on disability in Gansu and China. He concluded his speech by promising that he will take this opportunity to listen to the comments from UNESCAP officials and other regional experts, learn experiences from other countries, sum up the poverty alleviation work for the PWDs, and study a possible new modality in the period ahead. On behalf of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Ms. Kay Nagata (Social Affairs Officer, Population and Social Integration Section, Emerging Social Issues) delivered an opening speech of Ms. Thelma Kay, Chief, Emerging Social Issues Division, UNESCAP. (A summary of her remarks is presented in the summary of proceedings.). Mr. Sun Xiande, Vice-President, China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF), officially inaugurated the Workshop. He welcomed the participants to the Lanzhou City of the Gansu Province and to this UNESCAP/CDPF Workshop on Poverty Alleviation among Persons with Disabilities. He expressed his appreciation to the experts from UNESCAP, WHO, the World Bank and other delegates from the Asia-Pacific region. Also he extended his appreciation to the Chinese officials from various ministries and other research institutions. He thanked the Gansu Provincial Government and the Gansu Disabled Persons’ Federation for their full support to this workshop. He confirmed that the Government could play a leading role in poverty alleviation of PWDs by providing support and funding. Participation by the private sector is also encouraged. Poverty alleviation effort should be very specific and targeted at the poor households and individuals. Persons with disabilities should be encouraged to explore their own potentials and play an active part in lifting themselves out of poverty. The work has been very successful. 10 million persons with disabilities now have managed to get enough food and clothing through poverty alleviation projects during the past 12 years. He concluded his statement by reaffirming China’s strong commitment to continue the work of poverty alleviation for PWDs and participating actively in the process towards the international convention for PWDs. Nomination of Officers The following participants were nominated as the bureau of the workshop: Chairperson: Dr. Handojo Tjandrakusuma(Indonesia) Vice Chairperson: Mr. Zhang Guozhong (China) Co-Rapporteurs: Ms. Ines Basaen (Philippines) and Mr. Jahurul Alam Khandaker (Bangladesh) Objectives of the workshop A representative of the UNESCAP secretariat provided an introduction to the purposes and expected outcome the Workshop. She stated that participants were expected to develop the “Joint Statement” as a set of regional strategies to promote the twin-track approach and integrate disability concerns into pro-poor development initiatives at the national and regional levels, for possible adoption as a Workshop outcome. She added that the “Joint Statement” expected to be adopted at the end of the Workshop will be submitted as a major background document to the immediate follow-up workshop on poverty and disability to be co-organized by the UNESCAP, ILO and the Taskforce on Employment and Poverty Alleviation of the TWG-DC, to be held at Bangkok UNCC Bangkok (June 2005). Overview of recent international/regional developments in the field of disability Under the Agenda Item 1, entitled “Overview of recent international/regional developments in the field of disability including (i) the Standard Rules on Equalization of Opportunities for Disabled Persons, (ii) the Biwako Millennium Framework for an Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific (BMF) and (iii) the process towards an International Convention for Persons with Disabilities”, the International Resource Persons of this Workshop, Mr. Clinton Rapley presented a paper entitled “overview of recent developments in international and regional norms and standards related to persons with disability”. In his paper, Mr. Rapley reviewed the developments in international norms and standards related to disability including the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons, the Standard Rules on Equalization of Opportunities for Disabled Persons’, the recent progress in implementing the ESCAP regional mandate, the Biwako Millennium Framework (BMF) and the elaboration of the new international human rights convention for persons with disabilities. Regarding the process towards the International Convention, he shared the latest information on the outcomes of third session of Ad Hoc Committee (New York, 24 May – 4 June 2004) and the fourth session of Ad Hoc Committee (New York, 23 August - 3 September 2004). He concluded his presentation by highlighting a few strategies of “way ahead” such as 59th session of General Assembly, and sessions of the ad Hoc Committee in 2005. Development approach to empowerment of persons with disabilities Under the Agenda Item 2, “Development approach to empowerment of persons with disabilities”, Mr. Clinton Rapley provided introductory information about development approaches to empowerment of persons with disabilities; implications for poverty alleviation. Mr. Clinton’s observations included several critical issues:
Concepts and measurements of poverty and poverty eradication in the ESCAP region Under the Agenda Item 3, “Concepts and measurements of poverty and poverty eradication in the ECSAP region”, a representative of UNESCAP provided introductory information about poverty concepts and basic models of poverty. She explained about the existing two poverty models (i) “subsistence (income) poverty model” which is also named as “Anglo-Saxon model”, and (ii) “social exclusion model” advocated by the UNDP and other development agencies. The former emphasizes the “causes” of poverty and the latter emphasizes the “consequences” of poverty. She concluded her presentation, by covering the issue of possible socio-economic indicators and proxy indicators to measure the level of poverty defined by both models. Under the same Agenda, Mr. Qian Pengjian, a representative of CDPF, presented some good initiatives adopted in China. Such initiatives include: (i) incorporate poverty alleviation for persons with disabilities into overall poverty alleviation strategy of governments at various levels for coordinated planning and concurrent implementation; (ii) call for care and support of the whole society to persons with disabilities in poverty; (iii) allocation of “rehabilitation and poverty alleviation funds” co-operated by the DPF and Agricultural Bank of China in some regions; (iv) strengthening the service delivery system of local disabled people’s organizations and provision of basic services to rural disabled persons; (v) selection of effective poverty alleviation projects to meet characteristics and demands of different regions of the country and (vi) mobilizing persons with disabilities and promoting them to become independent, dignified and self-sufficient citizens. Mr. Xu Xilong, the Deputy Directory General, the Agriculture Bank of China, presented a paper on their disability-related activities. As a state-owned commercial bank, Agriculture Bank of China has been supporting the rural poverty alleviation among disabled persons for many years. In 1986, Agriculture Bank of China started to provide loans with discounted interest to persons with disabilities in the rural areas. In 1992, rehabilitation loans are available to rural disabled persons. In 1994, the State Council set up the Agricultural Development Bank of China, which is a state bank and takes over the business of providing rehabilitation loans. In practice, the rehabilitation loans are provided in three ways:
In total, Agriculture Bank of China has provided poor disabled persons rehabilitation loans of 4.86 billion RMB. In particular, since the implementation of “Poverty Alleviation Plan for Persons with Disabilities in Rural Areas “ (Year 2002-2012), an amount of 1.9 billion RMB has been increased in rehabilitation loans supporting over 3,500 poverty alleviation bases and covering nearly 700,000 poor disabled persons. A total of 300 million RMB have been provided in small loans, helping 270 million poor disabled persons. Problems mainly lie in four aspects:
Monitoring poverty among persons with disabilities: the MDG goals and the BMF goals/targets Under agenda item 4, Mr. Clinton Rapley discussed international and regional policies and targets on poverty alleviation: the United Nations “Millennium Declaration”, Development goal 1, and the Biwako Millennium Declaration, target 21, respectively. He noted that both were based on an income-based definition of poverty, but that UN ESCAP studies had identified capabilities, social exclusion and participation-based definitions of poverty. In his view, the UNESCAP approach contributed to a holistic understanding of poverty among persons with disability. He concluded by outlining a self-evaluation approach to monitoring poverty alleviation based on all four of the definitions of poverty and discussed implications for capacity building to promote active participation of persons with disability in poverty alleviation efforts at all levels. Regional outlook on poverty and disability Under the Agenda item 5, “Regional outlook on poverty and disability”, a representative from the UNESCAP provided a regional outlook on poverty and disability. She emphasized the vital link between poverty and disability. She quoted some regional figures about poverty and disability.
Sectoral issues concerning the vital link between poverty and disability: Country-specific cases Under the Agenda Item 6, Ms. Ines Basaen, the regional resource person, covered key sectoral issues related to the vital link between poverty and disability. She covered sectoral issues such as nutrition/health, education and training, employment, self employment and social security, and accessibility and physical environment and their implications on the quality of life of PWDs. She specifically cited issues related to education and training as follows: PWDs’ capability and type of disability, education opportunities and mode of delivery as well as access to financing of education and other resources for upgrading the functional literacy level of PWDs. Possibly, all efforts should provide PWDs continuing development and participation of PWDs in their own well-being. Day 2 On the 2nd day, the Agenda item 6 continued, first thing in the morning, the ILO video on “Ability Asia: Hiring people with disabilities: employer perspective” was presented to highlight the vital link between employment and disability. The video emphasized the importance of integrating disabled persons into open employment market and options for providing incentives to employers to achieve this goal. Concerning health, rehabilitation and Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR), a WHO representative covered the issue of “poverty, disability and CBR”. He shared the information on the Report of International Consultation to Review CBR (2003) that had identified the following aspects as needing to be strengthened to make CBR more effective:
Several countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Nepal, and Vietnam)[2] shared their country experiences with the participants under this agenda item. The main issues discussed include:
Integration of disability concerns into poverty alleviation policies/projects and development During the afternoon of the 2nd day, under the Agenda item 7, one wing of the “twin-track approach”, integration of disability concerns into poverty alleviation policies/projects and development was discussed among participants. Dr.Handojo Tjandrakusuma presented a paper on the “Entrepreneurship: An Alternative Concept for Economic Empowerment of People with Disability”. He shared a few good practices (field projects) about successful disabled entrepreneurs with an innovative and competitive approach in Indonesia. He emphasized the role of recent technological developments which may open a new path towards successful enterprises and venture businesses by disabled persons in a developing country. County experiences and good practices are shared among all participants for documentation and possible replication by other countries in the region. 5 countries (China, Bangladesh, India, Japan, and the Philippines)[3] shared their experiences with the participants. The main issues discussed include:
Day 3 Global/regional efforts for reduction of poverty among PWD: New partnership On the 3rd day, under the Agenda item 8, entitled “Global/regional efforts for reduction of poverty among PWD: New partnership”, first thing in the morning, an ESCAP video on the “power of partnership” was presented. The ESCAP video showed a few interesting field projects under the ongoing ESCAP “5-P project: Pro-poor private and public partnership”. Under the same agenda item, Mr. Clinton Rapley briefly covered the emerging issue related to globalization and new partnership for poverty reduction among PWD. His presentation covers (i) the issues of policy base for global and regional efforts to promote partnerships, (ii) the issues in building partnership for disability inclusive poverty alleviation and (iii) the emerging issue of globalization and poverty alleviation. He presented his views about globalization and poverty alleviation including following points:
Global/regional efforts for reduction of poverty among PWD: Technical cooperation Under the Agenda item 9, “Global/regional efforts for reduction of poverty among PWD: Technical cooperation”, a representative from UNESCAP provided power-point presentation on disability and technical cooperation. She introduced the currently used model, the “twin-track approach”, of disability integration and empowerment of PWD, the policy adopted by many international donors and INGOs, such as USAID, Scandinavian donors, the World Bank, DFID, Jica, etc --- a parallel approach to gender issues. She concluded her presentation by emphasizing the urgent need to devise user-friendly easy assessment tools on disability impact and disability sensitivity, for practitioners on development projects at the field level. B. Report on Plenary Round-up Open Forum Open Forum Discussions In the morning/afternoon of the third day, under agenda item 10, the participants covered the following two focus agenda: Focus Agenda 1: POLICY ISSUES including measuring and monitoring poverty and disability (including monitoring of disability impact, disability budgeting) and integration of disability concerns into development and poverty alleviation policies; Focus Agenda 2: GOOD PRACTICES including formulation of innovative projects (at the micro level) for poverty alleviation of PWD and technical cooperation and capacity building at the regional level The participants focused on the above-mentioned two agenda and developed a set of recommendations contained in the “Joint Statement”. Throughout the third day morning/afternoon, the Plenary Round-up Open Forum continued. During the afternoon break, the drafting committee composed of the elected rapporteurs of the Workshop, chairman, vice-chairperson, two resource persons and UNESCAP Secretariat met and synthesized the recommendations, comments and suggestions from the Open Forum, for development of a consolidated draft Joint Statement for submission to the afternoon Plenary session for consideration and adoption. Drafting Committee The “Drafting committee” established by the Workshop reviewed and discussed the focus issues for formulation of a set of recommendations which were based upon inputs from the Open Forum, for consideration in the plenary. Discussion on the “Joint Statement” on poverty alleviation among persons with disabilities At the end of the workshop, the participants had an in-depth review and discussion of the draft “Joint Statement”. Comments and oral amendments to the draft text of the “Joint Statement” were appropriately reflected in the final text which was adopted by the plenary session. Closing of the Workshop At the closing ceremony, a representative of the UNESCAP Secretariat, Mr. Michael Chai, Senior Social Affairs Officer, Population and Social Integration Section, delivered a closing statement by Ms. Thelma Kay (Chief, Emerging Social Issues Division) and thanked CDPF, the Government of China, the local governments, workshop participants, resource persons, facilitators, and the UNESCAP staff for their hard work and contributions to Workshop proceedings and the successful outcome. Mr. Wei Mengxin, Deputy Director General, Department of International Affairs, CDPF, officially closed the workshop by expressing his deep appreciation to the participants, organizers, resource persons and other support staff. III. ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKSHOPA. BackgroundDisability is rooted in high-risk factors from which the poor have little protection. These poverty-related factors include malnutrition, disease, accidents and exposure to hazardous substances. Most people with disabilities are poor. The greatest concentration of poor people with disabilities in the ESCAP region is in its rural areas. The poor as a social group are the least represented in decision-making processes. Among them, those with disabilities are even further marginalized. In addition to being oppressed by poverty, the human development potential of rural persons with disabilities is stifled by the discrimination and ignorance that characterize their social environment. Poor rural disabled persons are likely to be deprived of rehabilitation services, to be illiterate and they lack the skills for remunerative employment or self-employment. In general, it is those who are less disadvantaged who take maximum advantage of the benefits of poverty alleviation programmes, leading to the further marginalization of more vulnerable social groups. While, in principle, rural poverty alleviation programmes do not exclude people with disabilities, in practice, the absence of specific means of promoting their participation, especially through removing physical and attitudinal obstacles, effectively excludes them. There has been considerable emphasis on the crucial importance of people’s participation in rural development. In the past decade, attention has focused on the development of participatory processes and the role of women in those processes. Rural poverty alleviation in the ESCAP region has now reached a stage where there is a need to design programmes that can benefit all social groups, including those who have been overlooked. By focusing on people with disabilities, as a particularly marginalized and dis-empowered social group, the proposed project will identify issues and strategic approaches of wider relevance to the strengthening of poverty alleviation policies and programmes in terms of enhancing their overall impact on marginalized groups. In the light of the above-mentioned concerns, the Commission, at its 50th session in April 1994, had urged that the pressing issue of poverty among people with disabilities be addressed. The Committee on Socio-economic Measures to Alleviate Poverty in Rural and Urban Areas, on its first session held at Bangkok from 15 to 17 September 1998, had urged the inclusion of disabled persons in the secretariat's poverty alleviation activities, in consonance with Commission resolution 54/1 on “Strengthening regional support for persons with disabilities into the twenty-first century,” and the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993‑2002. Furthermore, the Committee had requested the secretariat to develop a project focusing on diverse approaches to poverty alleviation among rural disabled persons, including support for their formation of self-help groups, social mobilization for their active participation in rural development, and skills enhancement for their economic self-sufficiency. In close collaboration with the Government of India, UNESCAP organized the Field-study-cum-regional Seminar on Poverty Alleviation among Rural Persons with Disabilities in Hyderabad, India from 6 to 15 December 1999. The field-cum-seminar was hosted by the National Institute of Rural Development, Ministry of Rural Development, the Government of India. The participants from 10 developing countries of the region formulated recommendations, which focused on the promotion of the direct participation of disabled persons in rural poverty alleviation programmes. The seminar participants agreed to mobilize funds, in consultation with UNESCAP, to convene again in China in the year 2004 to review the outcome of follow-up actions. In May 2002, ESCAP members and associate members adopted resolution 58/4 on promoting an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based society for people with disabilities in the Asian and Pacific region in the twenty-first century, by which it proclaimed the extension of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002, for another decade, 2003-2012. In October 2002, Governments at the High-level Intergovernmental Meeting to Conclude the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons 1993-2002, adopted the “Biwako Millennium Framework for Action towards an Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with Disabilities in Asian and the Pacific,” as the regional policy guideline for the new decade. The framework identifies seven priority areas for action, in each of which critical issues and targets with specific timeframes and actions follow. “Poverty alleviation through capacity-building, social security and sustainable livelihood programmes” is one of the priority areas. At the 59th commission session (in 2003), ESCAP members and associate members adopted two resolutions: namely, 59/1 ”Regional Implementation of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action towards an Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific during the Decade of Disabled Persons, 2003-2012 (BMF)” and 59/3 “Strengthening Social Safety in the Asian and Pacific Region”, by which poverty alleviation among people with disabilities was singled out as an important priority action. To respond to follow-up action recommended by the seminar in 1999 and these resolutions, the China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF), China’s focal point on disability matters, informed UNESCAP in August 2003 of its strong wish to host a follow-up seminar in China in 2004. Our counterpart, the China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF) and the Government of China have been among UNESCAP’s best partners on disability issues, and they been among major contributors to the activities of the Decade of Disabled Persons. Since the launch of the first Asian and Pacific Decade in 1992 in Beijing, CDPF has made an annual contribution of US $10,000 to the UNESCAP Technical Assistance Cooperation Fund for the Decade. In 2003, CDPF and UNESCAP co-hosted, with generous financial support by the Chinese Government, a regional seminar on the international convention on disability. Though it is a stand-alone project, it is considered to be a continuing activity of implementation of the BMF, to be concluded in the year 2012. CDPF strongly recommended the implementation of this project during the year 2004. China attaches the importance to the work of reducing poverty among people with disabilities and has achieved a remarkable progress in this field during the last two decades. The law on the protection of persons with disabilities stipulates that an employment quota system should be in place (i.e., all enterprises should recruit a certain percentage of workers with disabilities). The employment rate of urban disabled persons has reached 84 % through various employment incentives. Persons with disabilities without financial resources can receive relief allowance and other services. Also, the Chinese Government has established specific preferential loans for persons with disabilities. Nearly 10 million persons with disabilities have been able to obtain sufficient food and clothing with such assistance. Poor urban disabled persons have been included in the bottom line life security to guarantee their basic living. Other countries with low GDP per capita may learn lessons from China, for replication of some elements. The outcome of this project will be beneficial for ESCAP members and associate members in the formulation of national policy on disability, in particular, to meet the goal No. 7 of the BMF, namely “poverty alleviation through capacity building of persons with disabilities and through social security”. B. Attendance The workshop was attended by 16 participants from 9 countries of the UNESCAP region, 2 international and regional resource persons, 4 Chinese resource persons and a number of experts from other entities such as WHO, the World Bank, local federations of persons with disabilities, the China Agriculture Bank, various government departments, local governments, etc. (See Annex I). C. Opening of the workshop Mr. Luo Xiaohu, Vice-Governor of the Gansu Province, officially inaugurated the Workshop and delivered a welcome message. Ms. Kay Nagata, Social Affairs Officer of UNESCAP delivered the opening statement of Ms. Thelma Kay, Chief, Emerging Social Issues Division. In her opening statement Ms. Thelma Kay first expressed her gratitude for CDPF, for its co-organization of this Workshop. She then extended her appreciation to the Government China, which has greatly supported the efforts of UNESCAP, both for the past and present Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Personsto promote the full participation and equality of persons with disabilities, not only through the organization of this particular event but also through many other activities and initiatives during the first Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons and the renewed Decade from 2003 to 2012. She explained that we were at a critical juncture in history with regard to persons with disabilities. Although the elaboration of a disability specific convention has been the subject of discussion for more than 15 years, a real process has begun and gaining momentum. She added the significance of this workshop because the workshop intended to produce, in light of the BMF mandates, an action-oriented joint statement focusing on key principles and strategies to integrate persons with disabilities into national poverty alleviation programmes and projects. Our joint statement will help our Governments, development agencies and civil society to mainstream disability. She concluded her opening statement by reaffirming the paradigm shift from a charity-based approach to a developmental and rights-based approach towards empowerment of persons with disabilities, the principle of the current Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons. Mr. Sun Xiande, Vice-President, China Disabled Persons’ Federation, officially inaugurated the workshop. He welcomed the participants to the Lanzhou City of the Gansu Province and to this UNESCAP/CDPF Workshop on Poverty Alleviation among Persons with Disabilities. D. Adoption of the agenda of the workshopThe Workshop adopted the following agenda and programme of the workshop. E. Adoption of the “Joint Statement”.Workshop participants reviewed, discussed and adopted in the final plenary a set of recommendations included in the Joint Statement. F. Closing of the WorkshopMr. Michael Chai, Senior Social Affairs Officer, Population and Social Integration Section, delivered a closing message of Ms. Thelma Kay, Chief, Emerging Social Issues Division at the closing. Mr. Wei Mengxin, Deputy Director General, Department of International Affairs, CDPF, officially closed the workshop. The workshop was officially closed in the afternoon of 29 October 2004. This report was issued without formal editing. [2] Ms. Zhang Hongbo, Director, State Council Poverty Reduction Office (China), Mr. Ratana Soth, Cambodia Trust (Cambodia), Ms. Zhao Yan, Professor, State Council Development Research Centre (China), Mr. Seeta Ram Chowdhari, Under-Secretary, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (Nepal), Mr. Tue Nghiem Xuan, Director, the Office of the National Co-ordinating Council on Disabilities of Vietnam (Vietnam). [3] Mr. Zhu Xueming, President, Gansu Provincial Disabled Federation (China), Ms. Anika R. Lipy, Coordinator, Training Centre for Disability in Development (Bangladesh), Mr. Venkata Rao Daggumati, Administrative and Account Officer, Commitments (India), Mr. Taisuke Miyamoto, DPI-Japan (Japan), and Ms. Ines Basan (Philippines). |
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