MELBOURNE: United Nations agencies and Chinese partners called today for sustained, systemic action to advance the rights and full participation of persons with disabilities, as a three-year joint programme concluded with a forward-looking dialogue in Beijing.
The Concluding Forum of the UN Joint Programme on Disability-Inclusive Development in China brought together around 80 stakeholders from government, civil society, academia, the private sector and organizations of persons with disabilities to reflect on three years of joint work and chart priorities for the period ahead.
The programme was jointly implemented by UNESCO, UNFPA and ILO, with support from the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office and funding from the Global Disability Fund. From 2024 to 2026, it advanced inclusion across four interconnected areas: accessible cultural participation, digital inclusion, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and inclusive employment.
Opening the dialogue, speakers from the United Nations and the China Disabled Persons’ Federation underscored that disability inclusion is not a sectoral concern but a cross-cutting development imperative — rooted in the commitments of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and essential to building a society where everyone can participate fully and equally. They reaffirmed that lasting progress requires moving beyond individual initiatives toward systemic, rights-based change.
“For the United Nations, disability inclusion is not a standalone issue. It is fundamental to human rights, sustainable development and social progress.”
— Mr. Stephen Jackson, United Nations Resident Coordinator in China
“The frameworks, tools, trained professionals and partnerships built through this programme are assets that can continue to serve disability-inclusive development in China well into the 15th Five-Year Plan period and beyond. The question before us now is how to ensure they do — how to move from individual initiatives toward more systemic change.”
— Prof. Shahbaz Khan, Director and Representative, UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia; Chair, UN Theme Group on Disability in China
“China stands ready to deepen its partnership with relevant United Nations agencies, jointly promoting inclusion in all respects and enabling more persons with disabilities to live a happy and dignified life.”
— Mr. Mu Fangting, Deputy Director General, International Affairs Department, China Disabled Persons’ Federation
Following the opening, Ms. Nadia Rasheed, UNFPA Representative to China and Country Director for Mongolia, presented an overview of the programme’s achievements, innovations and lessons. She highlighted that the programme was designed not only to deliver activities, but to drive systemic change, bringing together government institutions, organizations of persons with disabilities, academia, employers, museums, health professionals and UN agencies around shared goals.
“Disability inclusion is not simply about removing barriers. It is about unlocking potential, expanding opportunities, and ensuring that everyone can participate fully and equally in society.”
— Ms. Nadia Rasheed, UNFPA Representative to China and Country Director for Mongolia
The Forum also featured four thematic panel discussions, bringing together 19 experts from government, academia, organizations of persons with disabilities, civil society and the private sector.
Across all four sessions, a single message emerged clearly: inclusion cannot be reduced to access alone — it must be felt. Whether in museums, digital platforms, health services or workplaces, participants stressed that the goal is not to help persons with disabilities fit into existing systems, but to reshape those systems around their realities, rights and voices.
Throughout, participants affirmed that persons with disabilities are not passive beneficiaries but rights holders, knowledge holders and partners, whose meaningful participation is essential to shaping the policies, services and systems that affect their lives.
Held in the year marking the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the dialogue also provided an opportunity to reflect on how the next phase of implementation can further translate rights-based commitments into practice.
The dialogue concluded with a shared commitment to translate the tools, frameworks and partnerships generated through the programme into broader systemic change and longer-term impact.
“This marks an important transition — from inclusion for persons with disabilities to inclusion with and by people with disabilities themselves.”
— Mr. Changhee Lee, Director, ILO Country Office for China and Mongolia
PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
The achievements, innovations and lessons across all four areas are documented in the publication Toward Disability-Inclusive Development in China: Achievements, Innovations and Lessons from the UN Joint Programme (2024–2026).
Accessible Cultural Participation
Against the backdrop of China’s Law on Building an Accessible Environment, which entered into force in 2023, the programme helped raise the visibility of museum accessibility through national dialogue and practical action. Key outputs included China’s first comprehensive Guidelines on Museum Accessibility, a national call for good practices and professional training for museum staff. Fourteen museums joined the Accessible Museums initiative, 75 good practices were collected from 60 museums across the country, and more than 40 museum professionals strengthened their capacities through specialized training on accessible and inclusive service design.
Digital Inclusion
The programme supported a needs assessment among college students and women with disabilities, the development of a large language model-based learning agent and an accessible digital learning platform, and capacity-building in digital accessibility and AI literacy. More than 450 participants contributed to the needs assessment, informing an AI-powered learning ecosystem with over 600 resources. Online training workshops reached more than 100 persons with disabilities, disability service providers and community stakeholders.
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
The programme expanded access to information, support and referral pathways for women and young persons with disabilities through community-based outreach, localised training and the No More Silence mini-app. Participants were engaged not only as beneficiaries but as peer educators, trainers and advocates. Through peer networks and community outreach, these efforts reached more than 900 individuals across six provinces.
Inclusive Employment
In employment, the programme supported local policy innovation, the development of the Inclusive Employment Index, and employer engagement through the A Coming Tide Inclusive Employment Alliance. It contributed to a guiding policy on inclusive employment in Hangzhou and the integration of the Index into the local e-governance system. More than 70 companies joined the alliance, while trainings and outreach activities reached over 1,000 participants.
About the Programme
The UN Joint Programme on Disability-Inclusive Development in China was jointly implemented by UNESCO, UNFPA and ILO, with support from the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in China and funding from the Global Disability Fund. The programme ran from 2024 to 2026, advancing disability inclusion across accessible cultural participation, digital inclusion, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and inclusive employment.