Preconditions for inclusion in the Pacific

Laisa Vereti¹

This ‘Disability equity and rights: Challenges, opportunities, and ways forward for inclusive development’ publication was prepared under the DFAT – CBM Inclusion Advisory Group Disability Inclusion Technical Partnership, an Australian aid initiative implemented by CBM Inclusion Advisory Group and the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne.

This publication has been funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The views expressed in this publication are the author's alone and are not necessarily the views of the Australian Government.

This essay represents the views and experiences of the Pacific Disability Forum (PDF) and does not necessarily represent the views of all OPDs globally.

Introduction

In 2016, the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ annual report focused on disability-inclusive policies. The report described such policies as ‘a prerequisite for the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’. The report proposed that the ‘initial step’ of a disability-inclusive policy framework must incorporate 3 aspects: a non-discrimination framework, accessibility requirements, and assistive technology (AT) and support services that support the autonomy and inclusion of people with disabilities on an equal basis with others.² The Special Rapporteur’s call to action to policy makers was clear: ‘take those three aspects into account when designing and implementing any public policy or program, as they are indispensable for addressing the specific demands and needs of people with disabilities.³ It is from this that specific preconditional aspects have been developed.

Like others across the disability movement and sector, at Pacific Disability Forum (PDF) we found the Special Rapporteur’s conceptualisation of preconditions that are requisite for including people with disabilities in all programming and policies most useful. These increasingly began to be referred to as ‘preconditions for inclusion.’ At PDF we began to consider further preconditions critical to progressing the rights and needs of people with disabilities in our region. The Pacific has a strong regional identity as well as deep understanding of the unique experiences of our people with disabilities. We began to identify particular policy and programming areas within the Pacific that we considered to be additional prerequisites and indispensable for implementing the CRPD and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We were concerned they may not be captured within the three ‘aspects’ or ‘preconditions’ outlined by the Special Rapporteur’s report.

Preconditions to inclusion as defined by the Pacific Disability Forum

While keeping the Special Rapporteur’s original aspects of non-discrimination and accessibility, we split her third category. There is a dire lack of both assistive devices and support services in the Pacific and the resourcing and policy considerations to support each area is quite distinct. Our concern was that consolidating assistive devices and support services under one precondition, as the Special Rapporteur’s report had done, would not give either the attention they required for effective action towards realising the CRPD and SDGs. Therefore, we made assistive devices and support services 2 separate preconditions in our framework. We define support services as specific services provided to people with disabilities that support their direct participation and access to services, such as sign language interpreters, personal assistants, guide dogs, and peer support services.

We included community-based inclusive development (CBID) as an additional precondition. While CBID is not mentioned in the Special Rapporteur’s report, it is a prerequisite to disability inclusion as it facilitates the ‘last mile’ delivery of national sectoral policies as well as encompassing specific activities, such as community awareness raising and resource mobilisation. This is vital in the Pacific where the distances between countries and population spread within countries and across islands pose unique challenges.

We also included social protection as a further precondition in recognition social protection is widely recognised as fundamental to achieving social inclusion and the active participation of people with disabilities.^4,5 Social protection schemes are life changing for people with disabilities, addressing  social and economic impacts in times of crisis, alleviating poverty, and enhancing productivity, independence, and social inclusion.⁶ While mainstream social protection schemes are essential and people with disabilities must be ensured access to these, disability-specific benefits are also crucial to enable people with disabilities to pay for the extra costs associated with disability.

Other ways preconditions to inclusion have been understood

It is worth noting that other stakeholders have developed their own thinking around preconditions to inclusion and key aspects that should be named. We appreciate actors taking their own approach as appropriate to their own context, as we have done with our context. The United Nations Partnership on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNPRPD) applies a preconditions to inclusion framework, naming equality and non-discrimination, inclusive service delivery, accountability and governance, accessibility, and CRPD-compliant budgeting and financial.⁷ There could also be concerns that the term ‘preconditions’ may be misinterpreted by governments or donors as implying that progress on other aspects of disability rights and inclusion (such as mainstreaming) is less of a priority or does not need to progress until the preconditions are first met. While we respect this position, the usefulness of the preconditions framework makes it worth applying regardless. However, we emphasise that the preconditions should never be taken to suggest any lessening of urgency in other areas of disability inclusion work.

Challenges and opportunities

The past 5 years have seen mixed progress in relation to both the understanding of preconditions of inclusion and their achievement. Although the Special Rapporteur’s report was released in 2016, and PDF has advocated for many years since, policy makers in the region have lagged in applying the preconditions to inclusion as envisaged by the Special Rapporteur or PDF. There have been pockets of progress under some of the 6 areas. The pandemic saw increased investment and development of social protection schemes throughout the Pacific, including the introduction of disability-specific benefits. There is an opportunity to continue to build on momentum to establish mainstream and disability-specific social protection schemes that follow the Special Rapporteur’s guidance.⁸

There is also an opportunity in relation to AT and the World Health Organization’s Pacific AT Procurement Study, 2020.⁹ The study explored current challenges and strategies for strengthening the procurement of appropriate AT to increase access for people in the Pacific. Any future work in this sector should refer to this report, particularly regarding supply and economic efficiency. The report provides clear recommendations regarding how the region should proceed to strengthen provision of AT.

Huge challenges in progressing preconditions for inclusion remain. There has been a devastating loss of momentum around CBID in recent years. This has seen meetings and grass roots programming continuing but no systematic or resourced way forward for CBID at national and regional levels. A significant challenge is cross-departmental coordination as CBID does sit under any one ministry. There is a need for reinvigorated commitment by national governments in the Pacific to find CBID frameworks and resourcing models that work.

There has also been little progress on support services despite this being highlighted as a prerequisite to disability-inclusive policy frameworks since, at least, the 2016 Special Rapporteur’s report. Formalised support services remain virtually non-existent across the Pacific. Again, there is an urgent need for commitments, frameworks and resources to ensure this vital precondition to inclusion is galvanised into action. Doing so would have a transformational impact on individuals with disabilities, their families and communities, not least because it would enable more effective engagement within other mainstream and disability-specific development programs.

Looking ahead to 2030

A strong focus of the development sector since 2015 has been on mainstreaming disability into development efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda objectives and SDGs. There has not, however, been the necessary awareness or traction around the preconditions to inclusion since the Special Rapporteur introduced in 2016. It is now with increasing urgency that we are calling upon national governments and donors to apply and resource a preconditions to inclusion framework to their country policy and programming approaches. This is an imperative if disability inclusion efforts are to be effective in realising in rights of people with disabilities in the Pacific. The recommendations for progressing the preconditions for inclusion, as defined by PDF, are outlined below. These need to be followed if we are to make meaningful progress towards disability equity in our region by 2030.

Accessibility

• Regional Accessibility Standards on the Built Environment are under development. When publicly endorsed, adopt these within national regulatory frameworks.
• Train national delegations of professionals, OPDs, and government representatives (particularly at the sub-national level) on how to use and monitor the Regional Accessibility Standards on the Built Environment.
• Develop a regional process for monitoring the implementation of the Regional Accessibility Standards on the Built Environment by Pacific Island Countries, involving OPD representatives, government and other key stakeholders.
• Establish a regional taskforce to identify and mobilise action on strategic opportunities for accelerating accessible transport and infrastructure in the Pacific. This should build on the analysis and recommendations in the Pacific Regional Infrastructure Facility report Improving Accessibility in Transport Infrastructure Projects in the Pacific Islands.¹⁰
• Commission a report to undertake a situational analysis and outline of information and communications technology accessibility standards for the Pacific. This could then be tailored by countries when developing their own national standards.

Assistive devices and technology

• Review existing tax regulations and promote exemptions or concessions for assistive products and technology across the region.
• Establish a regional procurement facility, in line with the recommendations of the WHO AT Procurement Study, to address the shortage of quality and affordable assistive products and technology across the region.¹¹
• Develop support from national governments and partners for training of multi-disciplinary personnel related to assistive products and technology and integrated health and rehabilitation services to improve access and ensure safe and appropriate use by people with disabilities.

Community-based inclusive development

• Link CBID to disaster risk reduction through systematic mechanisms (such as national policies, international frameworks, and national and international funding allocations) to ensure risk reduction and risk prevention is sustainably embedded in CBID programming.
• Support an initiative to identify a new action plan and budget commitment to continue strengthening CBID in the Pacific. This should focus on key barriers, such as resourcing, improving coordination between government ministries, accessing regional and remote areas, and workforce planning.

Non-discrimination

• Ensure disability is mainstreamed into all other sectoral laws, particularly anti-discrimination legislation and policies.
• Include non-discrimination terms and provisions in partner and donor funding arrangements, including adequate provisions to address reasonable accommodation.

Social protection

• Support all countries in the region to adopt disability-specific support benefits and allowances based on regional good practices, including protecting the right to work, and embed these in relevant policies, legislation and budgets.
• Implement disability-inclusive mainstream social protection schemes, which protect the right to access specific disability support benefits and necessary family benefits.
• Develop social protection schemes that support children with disabilities and their families.
• Establish schemes that enable people with disabilities to access social welfare assistance automatically in the event of disasters, without having to provide evidence of hardship.

Support services

• Recognising the dearth of support services in the region, commission a regional report to provide a situational analysis regarding what support services currently exist in the Pacific and how they enable daily living and inclusion for people with disabilities. Provide clear recommendations for next steps to deliver concrete and systemic changes required to progress this sector.
• Invest in a pilot program that can be scalable to implement the recommendations of this regional support services report.

About the Author

Laisa Vereti, Pacific Disability Forum (PDF), has extensive experience promoting the rights of people with disabilities and disability inclusion in mainstream development programmes and policy in the Pacific. At PDF, Laisa’s oversees programming areas of emergency response, gender, youth, OPD and inclusive development, policy, research, and finance and corporate services.

References

[1]Pacific Disability Forum. Laisa.Vereti@pacificdisability.org

[2] UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 2016. Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights
Council on the rights of persons with disabilities, Catalina Devandas-Aguilar. https://undocs.org/en/A/71/314

[3] Ibid

[4] United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 2023. CRPD Implementation. https://www.unprpd.org/crpd-Implementation

[5] UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 2015. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities. https://undocs.org/en/A/70/297

[6] Ibid

[7] United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 2023. CRPD Implementation. https://www.unprpd.org/crpd-Implementation

[8] UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 2015. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities. https://undocs.org/en/A/70/297

[9] World Health Organization. 2020. Assistive technology procurement study: technical report. World Health Organisation Regional Office for the Western Pacific, Manila. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/334368

[10] Pacific Region Infrastructure Facility. N.d. Improving Accessibility in Transport Infrastructure Projects in the Pacific Islands.

[11] World Health Organization. 2020. Assistive technology procurement study: technical report. World Health Organisation Regional Office for the Western Pacific, Manila. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/334368

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