The Government of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) committed to enhance the protection and promotion of the human rights of persons with disabilities by ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in December 2016. To review the national statistical system from the disability perspective, the Government invited the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to organize a national stakeholder consultation on disability data collection in Palikir, Pohnpei from 3 to 5 April 2018.
A team of ESCAP Social Development Division visited the country. The team paid a courtesy call to The Honorable Magdalena A. Walter, Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Affairs, FSM Government. The three-day consultation involved a series of meetings with senior policymakers, statisticians and disability experts from various FSM Government agencies – Department of Health and Social Affairs, National Statistics Office (Division of Statistics under the Department of Resource and Development), Social Security Administration, Department of Education, Department of Justice, Department of Transportation, Communication and Infrastructure, National Election Office, and Department of Environment, Climate Change and Emergency Management - disabled people’s organizations and UN Joint Presence.
The consultation assessed the exiting disability data gaps and the Government’s capacity to report for the Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific, the CRPD and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and discussed on ways to collect more reliable and comparable disability data for evidence-based monitoring of national disability policies and global and regional mandates.
Based on the outcome and discussion from the consultation, ESCAP will assist the FSM Government to develop a national action plan on enhancing disability data collection. ESCAP will continue to liaise with the Stakeholders to support policies and data collection for persons with disabilities.
For more information about the news, please contact:
Social Development Division, ESCAP (Email: escap-sdd@un.org)