Social Protection

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Disability and Development

Latest UN estimates point that 600 million people are persons with disabilities, or 10% of the world population. There are 400 million people with disabilities estimated to live in the Asia-Pacific region. When taking into consideration the impact on families, the lives and livelihood of over 800 million people are impacted or about 25% of the population.

The proportion of persons with disabilities keeps increasing due to the large incidence of poverty, lack of occupational health and safety, poor pre-natal care, poor road and traffic management, civil conflicts, and landmines.

Further, poverty keeps increasing among persons with disabilities.

The realities of disability are alarming in Asia. Most of the disabled remain invisible, being underreported in national censuses and surveys. Less than 5% of children with disabilities attend school. Women and girls suffer double discrimination and have even less access to education than males. People with disabilities are poor because they are denied the access and opportunities most basic to human development - education, income, and self-esteem.

However, people with disabilities have the capacity to become productive citizens and positively contribute to the development of the Asia and Pacific region. Given that persons with disabilities represent around 10% of the population, the short term costs of education and integrating persons with disabilities will be surpassed by the long-term savings to families and societies. Countries would enjoy large productivity gains and economic returns when disabled people are allowed to develop their skills, intellectual and physical potential and engage in economic activities.

To assist people with disabilities integrate in society, activities should be developed in these areas:

• Inclusion
• Participation
• Access
• Quality

Inclusion: People with disabilities must be visible. National censuses and surveys need strengthening to properly report disabilities in national statistics. Disability issues should be incorporated into the activities of government departments and international organizations. Public awareness campaigns should be conducted to raise the profile of disability issues.

Participation: People with disabilities must have a ‘voice’. Dialogue should be strengthened between governments and Disabled Peoples Operations (DPOs) – “Nothing about us without us”. DPOs should be adequately represented in decision-making. Their advocacy role has been essential for mainstreaming disability issues in public policy.

Access: Removing barriers is essential for people with disabilities. Governments and donors or agencies should mainstream the use of universal design guidelines to ensure barrier free environments and establish an enabling environment for persons with disabilities. Also, ensuring access to interventions to prevent the causes of disabilities should be made accessible to all.

Quality: People with disabilities deserve quality of life and dignity. Disabled people deserve the same rights and quality of services as any other citizen in any country of the world, as universally accepted under the UN Charter of Human Rights.

Since ADB changed its overarching goal to poverty reduction in 1999, a significant amount of regional and country-based activities on disability have been developed. For instance, disability projects, such as ADB’s Expanding Employment Opportunities for Poor Disabled Persons, implemented in the three largest cities of Mongolia.

In late 1999, the first ADB Workshop on Disability was held in Manila concluded with two main recommendations:

• strengthening ADB's capacity to address the disability dimension in its operations
• strengthening developing member countries’ capacity to mainstream disability

To achieve these recommendations, the ADB approved a regional study to explore disability issues in the region. Provincial and National workshops have been developed in Cambodia, India, Philippines and Sri Lanka - over 1000 persons with disabilities, their families, disability experts and local disability NGOs participated in the consultations.

On October 2002, high level representatives from governments, regional development agencies, international DPOs and people with disabilities were invited to Manila to speak for themselves at ADB's Disability and Development Workshop.