Press Release.............................. UNESCAP News Services

Date 24 May 2004
Press Release No: N/16/2004

Improved disability statistics for policies

BANGKOK (United Nations Information Services) -- The First Workshop for Improving Disability Statistics and Measurement is being organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare from 24 to 28 May 2004 at the United Nations Conference Centre, Bangkok.

The main objectives of the workshop are to:

(a) Familiarize the participants with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and other international guidelines and principles for the development of disability statistics;
(b) Introduce best practices in disability data collections, from the planning stages to the collection and dissemination of the data; and
(c) Develop a strategic action plan for improving national disability information systems in accordance with ICF and other international standards.

The lack of adequate and comparable data on disability and disabled persons has contributed to the neglect of disability issues and inadequate development of national plans and policies in the Asia-Pacific region. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the region has some 400 million people who are living with some disability, but most of them are not counted by current measurement tools. The Biwako Millennium Framework for Action towards an Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific (BMF) called for Governments to develop their national information systems on disability by 2005.

To implement the BMF, UNESCAP has designed a new project aimed at strengthening national statistical capacities to produce better-quality and more comparable data on disability. The project proposal was based on the recommendations made by a UNESCAP Workshop on Improving Disability Data for Policy Use (Bangkok, 23-26 September 2003) attended by statisticians, policy makers and NGO representatives. The Government of the Republic of Korea has generously offered to fund the project which will be carried out over two years.

The First Workshop for Improving Disability Statistics and Measurement is being organized as part of the project activities. The workshop will be attended by over 45 statisticians and policy experts from around 20 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

For further details about the workshop, visit the meeting website at: http://www.unescap.org/stat/ .

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