ILO Collaboration with Other UN Activities

The ILO collaborates with other UN agencies on issues related to disability on regional and country levels, including UNESCAP, UNESCO, FAO, and UNDP.

The most significant is its current collaboration with the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). ESCAP is the secretariat for the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 2003-2013, and its implementing policy document, the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action (BMF) towards and Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific. As a result of this collaboration, the BMF includes decent work language and calls for the ratification of ILO Convention concerning Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons), No. 159. The ILO takes an active role in providing policy and technical advice on issues related to training, employment and self-employment provisions.

The ILO was the Chair of the Task Force on Employment and Poverty Alleviation Task Force of the Thematic Working Group on Disability-Related Concerns, which was dissolved in 2005. The Task Force sponsored the highly successful ILO/ESCAP Multinational Roundtable on Disability and Employment in July 2005 in Bangkok, a meeting attended by regional human resource professionals from many companies, as well as governments, workers’ organizations and NGOs.

In addition to the Roundtable, the ILO makes regular contributions to the implementation of the Biwako Millennium Framework. Most recently, it sponsored an Expert Group Meeting on the Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Vocational Training as a contribution to one of the BMF targets related to this issue. ESCAP and UNESCO colleagues served as resource persons at the meeting. In May of 2005, the ILO and ESCAP, along with the Pacific Forum, co-sponsored the Regional Workshop on Disability. The ILO ensured the participation of employers and workers at the meeting and provided one day of training on the interface of the BMF with ILO principles and methods of increasing decent work opportunities for people with disabilities in the Pacific.

The ILO and ESCAP also collaborate on information sharing, along with other bodies that collect disability-related information at the regional level, including the Asia Pacific Development Center on Disability and the World Bank. 

As a contribution to the end of the first Asia Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1922-2002, the ILO researched and published a 14-country study and a collection of good practice examples, called Moving Forward: Toward Decent Work for People with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific. The studies will serve as a benchmark in assessing the impact of the current Decade on the selected countries and the good practice examples have motivated many professionals in the field. The ILO Technical Consultation on Training and Employment of People with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific was one method for disseminating the research findings and establishing country action plans.

Through the Thematic Working Group and the nascent consultative group that will replace it, the ILO will continue to collaborate with ESCAP and other United Nations partners on issues of importance to persons with disabilities. Certainly, the expected adoption of a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, which is in the final stages of drafting, will be occasion for increased cooperation among its UN partners.

The ILO has collaborated actively with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on a regional basis and is exploring ways to collaborate on the country level regarding disability issues Most recently it is hoped that the ILO and FAO disability projects in Cambodia will link and be able to leverage human and financial resources to the benefit of people with disabilities. The ILO has also collaborated with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The ILO executed a UNDP-funded post tsunami recovery project in Thailand. As part of the overall project, Disabled Persons International Regional Office received funding to address livelihoods needs of disabled persons affected by the tsunami and provided training to the hospitality industry to promote barrier-free design in the rebuilding of hotels. In Afghanistan, the ILO Disability Advisory has collaborated actively with the UNDP’s National Programme for Action on Disability by providing technical advice on issues of policies and inclusion of people with disabilities.  

Additionally, the ILO collaborates with the WHO in activities in the region, which will include the organization of a Community Based Rehabilitation meeting in Bangkok in 2007.

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