Open Session at the 14th SOMSWD Meeting

On November 20, Tolhas Damanik, AGENDA Disability Rights Advisor, and Lim Puay Tiak, Chairperson of ASEAN Disability Forum (ADF), attended the open session with SOMSWD focal points during the 14th SOMSWD meeting in Lao PDR. Since September 2019, AGENDA and ADF, through the ASEAN Secretariat, had requested to have an open session with SOMSWD during their meeting in Lao PDR, to discuss collaboration between organizations for persons with disabilities (OPDs) and SOMSWD for the implementation of the Masterplan. At the last part of the presentation, Tolhas described the plan to hold the sectoral bodies strategic meeting on the Masterplan to draw feedback from SOMSWD. SOMSWD Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Singapore warmly welcomed this idea and suggested that this event be organized either back to back with the ASEAN Social Community (SOC-COM) meeting or the GO-NGO forum next year. SOMSWD brought the results from the open session with AGENDA and ADF to the AMMSWD meeting on November 21-22. AGENDA and ADF will coordinate with SOMSWD and the ASEAN Secretariat to finalize the plan for the strategic meeting.