Pacific Disability Forum

The Pacific Disability Forum is a charitable trust which was formed in July 2004 following a growing momentum in the Pacific region to recognise the potential of people with disabilities. Its purpose is to “Promote and facilitate regional cooperation on disability related concerns for the benefit of people with disabilities”

·         The Vision

An inclusive Pacific society that is responsive, culture sensitive and gender equitable that ensures the promotion and protection of the rights of Persons with Disabilities

·         The Mission

To improve and maintain the situations of Persons with disabilities in Pacific Island Countries & Territories through collaboration with relevant stakeholders and advocacy to build and strengthen the capacity of member DPOs to respond to issues affecting them

 ·         Values

In pursuing its vision, PDF seeks to exemplify the following values:

 -       we are innovative and practical

-       we are inclusive and respectful

-       we are independent and trust worthy

-       we are committed and reliable

-       we are transparent and accountable

-       we are united and self determined

-       we are passionate and persevered

Overview of PDF

The Pacific Disability Forum will provide leadership and serve as a regional focal point on disability issues and support the various National Disabled Persons Organisations, Donor and Nongovernmental partners in the quest to ensure that people with disabilities live in.

The Pacific Disability Forum will begin to turn the tide of people with disabilities being viewed as a burden rather than people with disabilities being seen as equal participants and contributors to communities and countries.

The Pacific Disability Forum will support the establishment and strengthening of National Disabled Peoples Organisations at country level to better enable them to promote the rights and defend the dignity of persons with disabilities.

The Pacific Disability Forum was formed after the (ODASC) Training Seminar in Nadi, Fiji, leaders of persons with disabilities and participants from the island nations from the Pacific, began to quietly articulate their desire for an interim committee to spearhead an effort to unite persons with disabilities in the Pacific under a South Pacific federation of persons with disabilities.

In 2003, at the Regional Leadership Training Seminar for women with disabilities held in Suva, Fiji, where a majority of participants came from the island nations of the Pacific, this sentiment was again expressed by a number of seminar participants. The Disabled People’s International (DPI) Oceania Sub region Office which was established in Suva, Fiji in 2000 to support National Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs) in Pacific Island countries played a pivotal role in organizing these two training seminars as well as servicing the PDF listserv.

By 2004, at the inaugural PDF meeting in Fiji, the members began to once again earnestly discuss the possibility of making PDF a formal organisation and establishing a regional office with a regional officer to coordinate the development of such a federation in the Pacific. This proposal was formally included in the draft of its Constitution and a shell plan to be presented to the AGM at its meeting at the end of 2004. The PDF Council faced by unexpected funding constraints, mandated priority shifts which, once again, placed the Development of a new regional office at a much lower priority than original proposed.

In 2005, further consultations were done at a meeting jointly organised by Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, UNESCAP and ILO Pacific Offices, PDF and DPI Oceania. It was at this time that NZAID commissioned two consultants to review what existed in the area of disability in the Pacific region.  As a result, the review presented strong recommendations that would give the NZAID Pacific Regional Health Programme a clear, strategic direction for assistance in the area of disability development in the Pacific region for the next 5 years. It was at this stage that some confirmation of support funding from NZAID was forthcoming and the dream of establishing a regional organisation became more interesting.  PDF was seen at this point to be well placed as a partner to NZAID in this noble task.

The establishment of a regional office with requisite resources to co-ordinate and promote development efforts in the region has increasingly become a vital step towards securing representation, ensuring participation and expressing the voice of Pacific persons with disabilities to the governments of the region, at regional and international fora of the United Nations bodies, as well as regional and international civil society organisations. Such an office can orchestrate the organisation, and support the development of a federation of persons with disabilities in the region. Such a federation, in turn, can serve as a framework for the dissemination and appropriate application of information, resources and projects to persons with disabilities of these island nations. Persons with disabilities in the Pacific, speaking with one voice through a federation as a regional block, cannot be lightly ignored in both regional and international forums.

The objects of the PDF are to within the Pacific region: