At the Regional Workshop on Disability-Inclusive Agribusiness Development in Bangkok in February, the over 120 delegate unanimously agreed to adopt the Bangkok Recommendations, to promote greater employment opportunities for disabled people in the agribusiness sector.
The 11 recommendations will serve as pathway to greater employment opportunities in the agribusiness sector for people with disabilities.
The Bangkok Recommendations call on governments, the private sector, civil society and in particular agribusiness to:
1. Expand enabling policies at all levels, and establish/strengthen networks that support persons with disabilities, and the public and private sectors engaged in disability-inclusive agribusiness development;
2. Develop and implement disability-inclusive policies and strategies that improve access to productive resources and assets, including credit within the agribusiness sector;
3. Promote employment and job opportunities, and create disability-friendly business environments and customer services in the agribusiness sector;
4. Support research and development, and invest in accessible technologies and infrastructure that will enable persons with disabilities to draw on their unique knowledge and abilities for effective engagement in agribusiness;
5. Improve access of persons with disabilities to affordable credit by providing reasonable provisions such as acceptable credit/interest terms, from the finance sector;
6. Create a certification/accreditation system which could add value to disability-inclusive agribusiness products and services;
7. Further promote evidence-based research on disability-inclusive agribusiness across Asia and the Pacific to identify, promote and share good practice models for future replication;
8. Enhance skill development opportunities and on-the-job training for persons with disabilities to include them in agribusiness;
9. Raise awareness of the importance of disability-inclusive agribusiness development, share accessible information and advocate for concerted actions among sectors and partners;
10. Consider the potential of disability-inclusive agribusiness in the discussion of the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and
11. Form a network to strengthen coordination and to follow up the Recommendations at the national and regional level for actual implementation, and to meet together in the next 2 years to review and discuss the progress of disability-inclusive agribusiness.
Source : The Nation Multimedia , 12th June 2013
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