Disability Advisor

Contract

This is a UNV National Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as National UN Volunteer. It is normally only for nationals. More about UNV National Specialist contracts.

Persons with disabilities are one of the largest minority groups in Thailand, and also an indispensable part of Thai society. In fact, persons with disabilities in Thailand face challenges to fully participate in society and development areas, which is further heightened by discriminatory social attitudes. The extent of inequalities experienced by persons with disabilities is often the result of a lack of accessibility to physical and virtual environments, institutional and attitudinal barriers, exclusion, and unequal opportunities. The achievement of the SDGs relies on the involvement and inclusion of persons with disabilities in all development efforts. With these principles, UNDP Thailand CO believes that SDGs will never be fully achieved if persons with disabilities are still left behind and not included in development sectors. UNDP Thailand has formulated Disability Inclusive Development Strategy which focuses on these three following areas. 1. Promoting equal rights: UNDP will work with both duty bearers and rights holders to ensure that the rights of persons with disability will be more protected and fulfilled. 2. Strengthening economic empowerment: To promote meaningful employment of per-sons with disabilities, the CO will work with government on policy related to employment, build capacity for private sector on inclusive workplace and empower youth with disabili-ties through skill training. 3. Mainstreaming disability inclusion: UNDP Thailand will leverage its capacity on SDGs integration to mainstream disability inclusion in different development areas and extend disability inclusion in the engagement with national and local partners. This year, UNDP Thailand has several initiatives to promote equal rights and strengthen economic empowerment of persons with disabilities. Moreover, UNDP Thailand takes a lead role for the UNCT’s working group on disability inclusion. Through this working group, UNDP Thailand will work closely with other UN agencies to enhance the UNCT’s performance related to the indicators of the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy (UNDIS) and develop joint projects on disability inclusion.

Under the supervision of the Deputy Resident Representative and the Integrated Team Leader, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: - Provide technical support to the policy advocacy work, programmes and projects planning and implementation as well as communication work of UNDP Thailand, to ensure that awareness on disabilities inclusion in UNDP’s work is raised and UNDP interventions are aligned with UNDP Thailand’s Disability Inclusive Development Strategy and country programme document which will contribute toward the achievement of the 2030 agenda, in particular with the leave no one behind lens; - Encourage and actively support programme and project staff to mainstream disability inclusion, persons with disabilities and their diverse needs in their work through discussions, providing guidance and facilitating consultations with organizations of persons with disabilities; - Coordinate and strengthen UNDP’ COs partnerships with the government and national and local organizations of /for persons with disabilities; - Coordinate and work with disability focal points of other UN agencies under the working group on disability inclusion to improve UNCT Thailand performance on UNCT accountability scorecard of the UNDIS and encourage each agency to bring their specific expertise on disability inclusion to UN joint programmes/projects. - Expand, manage and keep up-to-date the information and knowledge related to per-sons with disabilities in UNDP country programming including, but not limited to, statistical data on persons with disabilities, news, laws / government regulations related to persons with disabilities, and also best practices on disability inclusion.

☒ Accountability ☒ Adaptability and Flexibility ☒ Building Trust ☒ Client Orientation ☒ Commitment and Motivation ☒ Commitment to Continuous Learning ☒ Communication ☐ Creativity ☒ Empowering Others ☒ Ethics and Values ☒ Integrity ☒ Judgement and Decision-making ☒ Knowledge Sharing ☒ Leadership ☐ Managing Performance ☒ Planning and Organizing ☒ Professionalism ☒ Respect for Diversity ☒ Self-Management ☐ Technological Awareness ☐ Vision ☒ Working in Teams

Programme/project development related to the inclusion and rights of persons with disabilities

UNDP Thailand is located on the 12th Floor of the Secretariat Building of UN ESCAP. There is an automatic door accessing to the office and an accessible bathroom on the floor. The building houses about 15 UN Agencies with the accessibility of mobility disabilities. Staff and visitors, who have mobility disabilities, can access the building without any issue. Moreover, persons with diverse special needs, whether visual physical, brain lesions, hearing or speech impairments, also have access to a set of assistive devices, which are available upon request, in a designated area at the Accessibility Centre of the United Nations Conference Centre, which is located in the same compound and connected to the Secretariat Building.

The UN system wishes to create an inclusive workplace and commits to taking appropriate measures to enable persons with disabilities to access and benefit equally from employment and other engagement opportunities such as volunteering, by providing reasonable accommodation. In this context, “reasonable accommodation” means necessary and appropriate modifications and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.[Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 2]