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Commonwealth Health Partnerships 2015

Disability-inclusive development in the Pacific: A regional approach Commonwealth Health Partnerships 2015 85 Disability in Pacific island countries (PICs) has generally been an unseen issue. While there is relatively little accurate official data on the prevalence of disability, the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Bank estimate that, globally, around 15 per cent of any adult population is disabled. There is also the view that numbers of people with disabilities are increasing due to high rates of diabetesrelated amputations and blindness; increasing traffic and industrial accidents; and the ageing of populations. Disability has landed itself at the heart of regional social policy of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), because it is a crosscutting issue that limits access to education, employment, recreation, health and other social services, leading to economic and social exclusion. Pacific Islands Forum Leaders (PIFL) reaffirmed the need for more attention to be directed to the region’s most disadvantaged group – people with disabilities – who are among the poorest and most vulnerable in the world. People with a disability face many barriers to full participation in society, and this is no exception in the Pacific. Following the decisions of Pacific island leaders, Pacific Islands Forum ministers responsible for disability met in Cook Islands in October 2009 to consider and agree on the Pacific Regional Strategy on Disability (PRSD). The PIFL endorsed the PRSD in August 2010, promoting an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based society for people with disabilities, which embraces the diversity of all Pacific people. Leaders supported its objectives to improve the lives and status of people with disabilities in the Pacific region, and affirmed the need for disability-inclusive development in all government programmes in Pacific Islands Forum countries to address the needs of these people. PIFL endorsed the PRSD in recognition that the strategy ‘reflects the reality and needs of the Pacific and its unique social, economic and geographic context; represents a common agreement on how to proceed and a means Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Disability is at the heart of social policy for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat as it limits access to education, employment and health care causing economic and social exclusion Tom Perry / Commonwealth Secretariat


Commonwealth Health Partnerships 2015
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