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Second Regional Workshop “Persons with Disabilities – the Role of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)” was held in Montenegro
Participants were the representatives of the UNDP Country Offices Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Uzbekistan, Cyprus, Russia, Montenegro, UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as the representatives of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UNICEF, UNHCR, Statistical Office of Montenegro (MONTSTAT), Montenegrin Paraplegics Association and Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Welfare. The first workshop dedicated to this theme was held in Zagreb in 2008, when a necessity was recognized for gathering of the representatives from the UNDP, Government and non-governmental organizations dealing with these issues, in order to discuss advancement of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ratification process and generally of UNDP in this area. The aims of this year’s workshop were exchanging of ideas and opinions, exploring possibilities for building potential joint approaches, collection of significant innovative materials, studies and practices, which will contribute to reaching an agreement on concrete steps that each UNDP Country Offices in the region should take during 2009. The Workshop program included, among others, the following specific topics:
Also, the workshop enabled a constructive and active discussion on:
Developement of the national strategies in the countries where national strategies do not exist should be supported, as well as the related action plans. The strategies’ implementation and progress reporting should be coordinated by inter-ministerial mechanisms that should be supported, too. UNCT should invest greater advocacy efforts for the Convention ratification. Generally, a shift should be made from a ‘medical approach’ to persons with disabilities - which is still prevalent - to the ‘social model’. In this sense, UNDP should advocate for and facilitate inclusion for disability related questions in 2011 census in order to obtain comparable data over the region. It is necessary to support the networking of groups that deal with various issues of disabilities, in order to create a broader movement in support of persons with disabilities. Civil society organizations’s capacities should be capacities developed in order to enhance their advocacy abilities for their positioning as partners in national strategies, drafting laws, networking, ability to provide good quality community services, develop services standards together with the authorities, support their sustainability, explore a potential framework for CSO sub-contracting the government/local authorities for improved sustainability; improve the CSO watchdog activities, etc.. * * * Globally, there are approximately 650 million people living with disabilities. This group represents over 10% of the population, but they are often invisible for public and sometimes unnecessarily restricted to their homes or the institutions. The majority of them, around 80%, live in the developing countries and they are at high risk of poverty. Some data show that in Serbia, 70% of persons with disabilities live in poverty, and only 13% have the opportunity to work. Similarly, in Bulgaria only 13% of persons with disabilities are employed . In the Russian Federation the number is slightly higher, with 30% of persons with disabilities able to find employment . In Montenegro, 22.4% of persons with disabilities are engaged in gainful activities, but not all of them are considered as employed . In December 2006, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol thereto. This Convention entered into force in May 2008 and it represents a key to unlock social gates that keep persons with disabilities invisible, and as ‘objects’ in need of social assistance, instead of subjects who are rights holders. * * *
“In poverty area, in terms of social inclusion, gender equality and achieving of the Millennium Development Goals, data collection and analysis of disabilities will highlight the issue and provide better resource allocation for basic social services to persons with disabilities. We need to take into account the employment strategies for persons with disabilities and other important elements, like the incidence of HIV/AIDS.” “In Democratic governance, the areas of inclusive participation, strengthening governing institutions, democratic governance in international principles have important policy and programmatic implications. Lack of access to polling stations and government response in attempt to protect persons with disabilities from abuse and neglect are two important issues which need to be addressed.” “Crisis prevention and recovery: conflicts and natural disasters cause a sharp increase in the number of persons with disabilities. Existence of mine fields, for example, can lead to a continuous increase in disabilities. In a post-crisis period, programs should deal with reintegration and livelihood of persons with disabilities.“ “We need to complement our actions within a well-coordinated UN country-level participation. UNDP’s work should include our own actions related to the corporate priorities as well as promoting and partnering in UN Country Team efforts. Persons with disabilities are the world’s largest minority and we need to mainstream the issue of disability in our policy and programmes,” stated Avanesov. Mirjana Đurić, representative of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Welfare of Montenegro said: “The Government of Montenegro adopted in 2007 the Strategy for Integration of Persons with Disabilities. This document was a result of partnership between Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Welfare, Montenegrin Paraplegics Association and International Orthodox Christian Charities and under the auspices of European Agency for Reconstruction. That was the first time in Montenegro that all of the areas of importance for the life and work of persons with disabilities were treated in a systematic and a comprehensive way. The Strategy encompasses: health protection, social and child protection, education, access to professional rehabilitation and employment, culture, sports and recreation, as well as the organizations of persons with disabilities and their status in the society. The Strategy covers the period 2008 – 2016, and it recognizes the activities and measures that should be taken in all the mentioned areas for the purpose of improving the position of persons with disabilities in Montenegro.” Last year an Action Plan for the Strategy 2008-9 was adopted, and it identifies priority measures and activities, people in charge and deadlines. Of a special importance is creation of intersectoral workgroup tasked to monitor the implementation of all of these activities and progress reporting to the Government and general public on annual basis. This workgroup should achieve two main goals: 1. Greater inclusion of persons with disabilities in all sectors by using coherent policies and through coordinated activities; 2. Members of this workgroup are officials from different Ministries and representatives of the organizations of persons with disabilities. Thus, the recommendations and basic requests of both the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Council of Europe’s Action Plan on active inclusion of these persons in all related policy making processes and practices, are respected. Consequently, ‘simple service beneficiaries’ are shifting to - let us call it - real creators of policies, which is of utmost importance.” “The 2008 Action Plan for implementation of the Strategy, developed by the intersectoral task force, contains all the planned measures and implemented activities, but also a few activities which have not been yet completed. I believe we did the most in the legislative framework, we adopted a number of very important respective laws, such as the Law on Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities, Law on Transport Benefits for Persons with Disabilities and for their Escorts, Law on Movement of Blind Persons Accompanied by Guide Dogs. A lot was done during 2008 for substantial improvement of the status of persons with disabilities in our country,” concluded Ms Đurić. Yuri Afanasiev, UNDP Resident Representative in Croatia, stated: “It was really interesting to hear what the Government of Montenegro has achieved in a very short period of time. I think that all of us from UNDP regional offices and our regional centre in Bratislava can confirm that a lot has been done since the Convention drew the World’s attention to the most numerous but the most silent minority which counts 650 million people coping with disabilities in one way or another. So, approximately 10 to 11 percent of the population of each country can, in one way or the other, benefit from our endeavours and discussions”. “This part of the region is preparing for a meeting in May, which will be hosted by the UNDP Office in Serbia and the Government of the Republic of Serbia, where we will consider the influence of global economic crisis on poverty and socially excluded groups. We, internally as an organization and in the broader development sense, are now facing a challenge – not only how to promote the Convention and its values to the Governments, but also how to advocate for the Governments, that have just started taking care of persons with disabilities in different areas defined by the Convention, not to make steps back in relation to what they already achieved, due to budget limitations and pressure on social welfare and the system. We know that in average 60 to 80 percent of persons with disabilities live in poverty, and only recently the state social services have started providing at least the bare minimum for a decent life to these persons. The Governments face budget limitations and there is a danger of scaling back, i.e. going back to where we started. The concrete activities we have agreed upon are of utmost importance to me, as well as the fact that all of you, who are not on managing positions, are going to go back to your countries and, in these difficult times, influence UNDP leaders and UN Teams to move forward with addressing some of these issues,” Afanasiev highlighted. * * *
The projects are divided in eleven categories – gathering and analysis of data and information; advocacy and change of attitude; encouragement of new rules of conduct and their continuation; non-discrimination, justice and human rights; national planning and policy development; capacity development and empowerment of persons with disabilities; strengthening of national governments’ capacities; local authorities dealing with disability issues; improvement of information approachability; improvement of employment possibilities for persons with disabilities as well as activities in the interest of subgroups of these persons and their families. |
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Second regional workshop dedicated to persons with disabilities, jointly organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Offices in Montenegro and Croatia, with the support from the colleagues from Serbia and the UNDP Regional Bureau in Bratislava, was held on April 23 and 24, 2009 in Budva. 
In his opening speech, Alexander Avanesov, UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative in Montenegro, said: “In order to ensure that the general principles of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are respected, UNDP should develop programs for the social and economic growth of persons with disabilities; to expand our physical environments and information technology systems; and to include, empower and employ persons with disabilities within UNDP. UNDP’s support for persons with disabilities should include human-rights based mainstreaming and special actions; partnerships and advocacies and the social model of disability. In UNDP 2008-2011 Strategic Plan, persons with disabilities are identified as a key group to be included in three out of four priority areas, namely in: poverty reduction and achievement of the 
Over fifty UNDP offices are implementing, or have recently completed over 100 programmes and projects for persons with disabilities. Many of these projects include capacity strengthening and empowering persons with disabilities, often by employment initiatives. A significant number of these projects aims to help families of these persons, while others specifically address for example the vulnerable groups of women with disabilities.