The Pacific Islands Forum supports the development of disability as a regional policy issue, to strengthen the capacity of governments and non-governmental organizations in Forum Island Countries (FICs) to integrate disability into development programmes, bearing in mind that it is a rights-based issue.

For the first time, a Disability Coordination Officer was employed in 2006 at the Forum Secretariat in Suva, Fiji. The newly created role under the Policy Coordination and Advice unit aims to strengthen the poverty focus of national development and MDG reporting, the support and facilitation of sectoral policy coordination, promotion of inclusive development policies and strategies, and ensuring that disability issues are integrated into the work of all of the Secretariat's operations. The Officer also supplements in-country capacities through monitoring and reporting on extra-regional and intra-regional developments concerning disability through the provision of associated research.

Click here for Disability Focal Points of member countries of the Pacific Islands Forum.

For more information see:

• Disability in the Pacific
• Conventions and International Agreements on Disability
• Regional Documents on Disability
• Forum Disability Ministers Meeting