Open Discussion on Opening Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities in Formal Working Sector

The workshop aims to raise awareness of and promote employment access for persons with disabilities.

Background

Decent work is the ILO's primary goal for everyone, including persons with disabilities. The ILO has worked for over 50 years to promote skills development and employment opportunities for people with disabilities based on the principles of equal opportunity, equal treatment, mainstreaming into vocational rehabilitation. Amongst others, since 2001, the ILO-Irish Aid Partnership Programme has worked in selected countries of South East Asia and East and Southern Africa to promote decent work and a better life for people with disabilities through enabling legal and policy environments, and by providing entrepreneurship development training and access to related services, with a particular emphasis on women with disabilities.

The programme has also promoted the inclusion of persons with disabilities alongside non-disabled people in programmes and services relating to employment promotion and economic and social development. In the current phase of the global Partnership Programme (2012-13), Promoting Rights and Opportunities for People with Disabilities in Employment through Legislation (PROPEL – Indonesia) will support the Government of Indonesia and other key stakeholders to address barriers to equal employment opportunities, and promote disability inclusion. Also, other projects in the office, mainly Better Work Indonesia, promote disability inclusion.

Disability issues still do not get enough attention in Indonesia, however, after the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) in October 2011, some more attention has been given to promoting rights of people with disabilities by the government, international organizations and disabled people organizations (DPOs).

Objectives

  • Raise awareness of and promote employment access for persons with disabilities;
  • Provide support to further implement 1 per cent quota in West Java;
  • Advocate for the government and other key stakeholders to provide accessible employment opportunities for persons with disabilities; and
  • Creating a two-way communication between the government and other key stakeholders, specifically on the needs of persons with disabilities in formal sector.

The open discussion should also consider possibilities to establish an information center on employment for persons with disabilitiesat the Department of Manpower and Transmigration of West Java Province.

Outputs:

An agreement between West Java local government, the city councils in West Java, the Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo) West Java, DPOs and ILO to cooperate in:

  • analyzing conditions (challenges and opportunities) for persons with disabilities in obtaining vocational training to gain access to employment opportunities;
  • accommodating trainings for persons with disabilities in responding to the formal sector market;
  • conducting workshops and trainings for government and key stakeholders in creating equal opportunities for persons with disabilities at a provincial level;
  • disseminating guidelines to support key stakeholders in managing persons with disabilities in the work places; and
  • Supporting the media to portray lives and employment opportunities of persons with disabilities to promote rights of persons with disabilities.