Children with disabilities
Leave no one behind
An estimated 43 million children with disabilities live in East Asia and the Pacific. Exclusion of these children prevails in every country in this region. Many have limited access to basic services, such as education, protection and psychosocial support and live in poverty.
For every child, inclusion
Children with disabilities are first and foremost children and have the same rights that all children have. In East Asia and the Pacific, UNICEF is committed to strengthening disability-inclusive programming, also in emergency contexts. This means that activities, programmes and policies promote and protect the rights of girls and boys with disabilities, as well as their families, to survive and to live with dignity, while benefiting the population as a whole.
Informed by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNICEF works to promote full participation of children with disabilities in society. Strategies to advance inclusion are determined jointly with government and civil society partners and are adapted to country context. The following implementation strategies have proven successful:
Establishing partnerships for results. The engagement of a diverse set of stakeholders including governments, UN agencies, organisations of persons with disabilities (OPD), private and civil society partners and religious groups at regional and national levels is critical. UNICEF uses its convening power for collaborative efforts that serve to raise awareness, mobilise resources and improve disability inclusive programme delivery in both development and humanitarian contexts.
Collecting and using data and research on disability. To ensure children with disabilities are visible and considered in policies and programmes it is instrumental to fully integrate data and research on disability into all national statistical systems. With support from UNICEF, government officials and OPDs acquire adequate skills and capacities to collect and interpret data, as well as to provide evidence-based inputs to decision-making processes, and policy and programme development.
Strengthening systems and capacity. A sustained commitment is needed to mobilise and support stakeholders to develop disability-inclusive and targeted programmes at scale, which are mainstreamed into existing health, education and child protection systems. This capacity should be accompanied by adequate financing at all levels and efforts to strengthen the technical skills and knowledge of UNICEF staff as well as external stakeholders.
Promoting behaviour change to combat stigma and discrimination. UNICEF and partners use a variety of interventions to help shift behaviours regarding children with disabilities, including promoting interaction between adolescents with and without disabilities; and, empowering children with disabilities and their parents by giving them a platform for advocacy. Moreover, sustained public and media campaigns as well as targeted interventions with government and civil society to highlight equity gaps and influence policy making, have resulted in disability-inclusive policies and legislation.