New Regional Guidebook Release and Workshop: Pacific Region Workshop Highlights The Pacific Regional Guidebook on Disability Statistics

Empowering Inclusion through Disability Statistics: The Pacific Regional Guidebook on Disability Statistics

The Pacific Community (SPC) hosted a one‑day regional workshop on 18 February 2026 dedicated to building capacity for the effective implementation of the Pacific Regional Guidebook on Disability Statistics and corresponding statistical toolkit.

Discussions during the workshop highlighted continued interest across the Pacific in the WG-tools and methodologies, expressed by a range of stakeholders, including OPDs, NSOs, and government disability focal points.

• Workshop documents may be accessed here.

The guidebook is the result of extensive collaboration between the Pacific Community, Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs), the Pacific Group on Disability Statistics, and the Nossal Institute for Global Health (University of Melbourne), with support from the Government of Australia.

• The Guidebook may be access here.

Purpose and objectives of the workshop

The workshop aimed to familiarize national statistics offices (NSOs), donors, partners, countries and data users with the Pacific Regional Guidebook on Disability Statistics and its role in improving disability statistics. It sought to build a shared understanding of disability measurement using internationally endorsed approaches and to strengthen collaboration between NSOs, development partners and data users, while promoting the production of consistent and comparable disability statistics across the Pacific region.

Participation

The workshop, held in PIFS, Suva, Fiji, brought together around 50 participants from across Pacific Island countries and territories, including representatives from National Statistics Offices, government disability focal points, Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), and regional and development partners. Participants also included representatives from UNICEF, the Pacific Disability Forum (PDF), the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), and the Pacific Community (SPC). 

Key highlights and outcomes

Key highlights of the workshop included:

• Strengthened understanding of functional approaches to disability measurement and the application of the Washington Group Short Set-in censuses and surveys.

• Practical discussions on interpreting disability prevalence, including common challenges and risks of misinterpretation in Pacific contexts.

• Focus on transforming disability data into usable and accessible evidence, including good practices for analysis, reporting and dissemination.

• Structured feedback from OPDs, informing more inclusive survey design and data use across the data lifecycle.

• Identification of next steps, including further capacity building, improved dissemination of disability monographs, development of accessible materials from the Guidebook, and strengthened collaboration between NSOs, OPDs and partners.

Overall, the workshop reinforced a collective, Pacific‑led approach to advancing disability statistics and supporting evidence‑based, disability‑inclusive decision‑making in the region.