Review and appraisal of the
World Programme of Action
concerning Disabled Persons
Part 6 of 6  
VI. Conclusions and recommendations
A. Concluding remarks
The data available for the third review and appraisal suggest widespread
policy-level support for the goals and objectives of the World
Programme of Action. The Special Rapporteur on Disability notes, for instance, that 85
per cent of Governments responding to his 1995 questionnaire for the second round of
monitoring of the Standard Rules reported the existence of a national disability policy.
Programme implementation experience since the end of the United Nations Decade of
Disabled Persons on Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities and the Long-term Strategy to Implement the World Programme of Action
concerning Disabled Persons to the Year 2000 and Beyond, provide useful frameworks
both for advocacy and for the design and evaluation of policy options in the field of
disability. Moreover, the decision by member States of the Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific to proclaim the period 1993-2002 as the Asian and Pacific Decade
of Disabled Persons has provided a time-frame to plan and coordinate action at the
regional level to further the World Programme's goals of full participation and equality.
A major lesson of the implementation experience since the end of the Decade is the
recognition of the need to address disability issues both in the context of overall
development and with reference to a broader human rights framework. This is evident in the
observed shift in policy emphasis from the integration of disabled persons to their full
participation in mainstream development. Participation in development and the adoption of
human rights approaches raise issues of empowerment and of environmental factors which
facilitate or impede participation by all. Concern with the broader human rights framework
reflects growing recognition that addressing the social, economic and cultural rights, and
civil and political rights, of persons with disabilities advances the rights of all.
Participation in development and human rights thus represent a means and an end of the World Programme of Action, a view which finds support in the
Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development, in which the significance of social
development and human well-being for all and the need to give to those goals the highest
priority is noted.33
A second lesson has been the expansion of constituencies concerned with disability
issues. In addition to action by Governments, which traditionally are addressed in
international development instruments, there have been significant increases in
participation by the non-governmental community and the private sector (including
foundations) in practical action in the disability field. This trend suggests the
importance of policy coherence and of modal neutrality when designing instruments to
further the objective of equalization of opportunities. Modal neutrality in this sense
refers to policy design which promotes local initiative and flexibility in decisions on
implementation modalities. Policy coherence refers to the need to present the objective of
equalization of opportunities in a framework that can accommodate short-term differences
in policy preferences, which may arise among the various sets of development agents.
A third lesson is the continued validity of the substantive content and the
multidimensional character of the World Programme of Action.
The goals and objectives of the World Programme are reflected widely in the policies of
Governments, as well as in selected country cooperation frameworks of UNDP. The World Programme of Action is also providing an effective framework
for addressing issues and trends that have emerged since the end of the Decade, from the
disability perspective. For instance, recent developments in information and
telecommunication technologies have contributed to the creation of virtual communities of
interest in the disability field, which are consistent with the accessibility and the
institutional development concerns of the World Programme of Action. Virtual communities,
moreover, represent an important means to implement the World Programme in the third
millennium.
One issue that has emerged since the end of the Decade but which has not received
detailed attention in the World Programme of Action is the
relationship among population ageing, impairment and disability. Population projections of
the United Nations that have recently become available34
indicate that significant increases will occur in both the number and percentage of older
persons in all regions beyond the year 2000. Data from the disability statistics database
indicate that the incidence of impairment and disability increases significantly with age,
so this trend has important and immediate implications for policy design. Current
projections indicate that the percentage of the world's population aged 65 and above will
increase by some 50 per cent, to 9 per cent of the world's population in the year 2020
from an estimated 6.5 per cent in 1995. Over the same period, the average age of the
world's population will increase from 25 years in 1995 to 31 years in 2020. Moreover,
infant mortality is projected to decrease by 50 per cent, to 31 per 1,000 births in 2020
from 62 per 1,000 births in 1995, and life expectancy at birth is projected to increase
from 63 years in 1995 to 69 years in 2020. These projections suggest that, over the next
generation, there will be substantial increases in the number of persons who will spend
their lives with some impairment or disability. An urgent need thus exists to examine
options to make environments accessible to all to participate on the basis of equality in
social life and development. An associated need is to develop alternative frameworks to
organize and deliver essential services in the year 2000 and beyond which effectively
support independent living and can respond to changes over the life cycle, are
community-based and involve beneficiary input in the determination of service needs,
alternatives and cost-recovery measures.
B. Recommendations
Data on the implementation of the World Programme of Action
since the end of the Decade suggest the continued validity of the World Programme as a
framework for advocacy and policy design. They do not indicate any significant lacunae
which would require specific research and analysis work on concepts, instruments or
strategies. The data do suggest the importance of (a) coherence in policy designs so that
they contribute to the full participation and equality goals of the World
Programme of Action and (b) modal neutrality when formulating implementation options.
The present recommendations thus focus on two sets of issues: (a) suggested priorities in
implementation strategies; and (b) suggested resource allocations to strengthen capacities
to further implement the World Programme of Action.
Experience strongly suggests that effective strategies for the implementation of the
World Programme of Action are characterized by their linking of disability issues with
overall development variables and within the broader human rights framework of the United
Nations. Rather than focusing on the particular needs of persons with disabilities as a
specific social group, the disability perspective on development reflects concern with the
set of social, economic and environmental factors that contribute to the attainment of a
society for all by 2010. The broader human rights framework introduces concern with
empowerment and with accessibility, both of which are essential for the equalization of
opportunities and self-reliance.
Experience also suggests three strategic areas in which action and resource commitments
are expected to result in improved capacities to further the goals and objectives of the World Programme of Action: (a) data and statistics on disability;
(b) methods and procedures of inclusive planning; and (c) capacity-building and
institutional development for a society for all.
1. Data and statistical development
Current and reliable data are essential for policy formulation and evaluation from the
disability perspective. Improvements in the body of data on disability and in statistical
methodologies have occurred in the period since the end of the Decade, although the data
are currently somewhat limited for purposes of comparative analysis. Data collection
programmes in place and under development in developing countries provide extensive
opportunities to promote the use of new statistical concepts and methods, and the
compilation of statistics and indicators. Specifically, the round of population censuses
in 2000 and the revised census recommendations which, for the first time, cover disability
as well as the further development of the topic of disability in national household
surveys, will make possible substantial improvements in the availability of statistics on
disability for analysis and planning at all levels, as well as for the projected fourth
quinquennial review and appraisal of the World Programme of Action in 2002. With such
considerations in place, technical cooperation, training and exchanges of information over
the forthcoming few years can make a critical difference in the development of disability
statistics in countries. In addition, the United Nations disability statistics database
represents an essential system-wide resource which contains statistics for monitoring at
the international level progress related to the situation of persons with disabilities in
countries. The disability statistics database also provides a framework that countries can
use in the preparation of their own national statistical databases. Consequently, work by
Statistics Division on version 2 of the disability statistics database should be
appropriately strengthened on an urgent basis.
2. Further work on indicators for monitoring and evaluation
It is possible to identify three main topics for further work on indicators: (a)
identification of indicators for short-term and medium-term targets for equalization of
opportunities; (b) incorporation of environmental variables among revisions being proposed
for the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps; and (c)
identification of indicators that link selected legal and policy instruments related to
the equalization of opportunities.
3. National capacity-building for the disability perspective
Growing concern with the disability perspective on development and the emergence of new
constituencies for action on disability introduce an urgent need for information, outreach
and strengthening of capacities, with special reference to the equalization of
opportunities for all. In the United Nations system, there is a need to build proactive
capacities for the disability perspective in the social and economic sectors, including
activities for development cooperation. In addition to specialized training and
orientation of concerned staff so that they are better able to assist and advise
Governments in this area, there is an urgent need for practical guidelines on inclusive
approaches to planning, programming and evaluation.
A need exists for capacity-building at the national level, although the heterogeneous
set of communities of interest in the disability field suggests the wisdom of modular
approaches to outreach, information and skill development. For Governments, major topics
of concern would include strengthening of capacities for inclusive-situation analyses and
for determining priorities which would best yield improvements for all. For the
non-governmental community, a major topic of concern would be negotiation strategies for
advancing the agenda of specific social groups within the broad framework of a society for
all. Information and outreach among interested members of the private sector would focus
on issues of social value, as well as cost recovery of initiatives planned and undertaken
to promote the equalization of opportunities for all.
Footnotes
33 Report of the World Summit for Social Development,
Copenhagen, 6-12 March 1995 (A/CONF.166/9), chap. I, resolution 1, annex I, para. 1.
34 United Nations, "World population prospects: the
1996 revision", annex II, "Demographic indicators by major area, region and
country"
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