With support of Dark & Light (and others) a conference was held in Myanmar about the Plan of Action for Persons with Disabilities.

In two events held in Nay Pyi Taw and Yangon between 10th and 14th May 2010, over 300 people participated in the launch of the Plan of Action for Persons with Disabilities, and over 200 participated in orientation and training to Community Based Rehabilitation, including over 120 government officers and members of Disabled People’s Organizations, UN agencies, International NGOs, local NGOs, media and business community representatives. Concrete outcomes included the public announcement of the commitment by the Government of the Union of Myanmar to sign the Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities, launching of the Plan of Action, establishment of the Disability Working Group to oversee the implementation of the PoA, a set of detailed, concrete recommendations for taking the PoA forward, concrete commitments by actors from various sectors to contribute and collaborate with the PoA, and national media coverage of the proceedings in Yangon and Nay Pyi Taw.

The National PoA was developed by participative, consultative process in 2009, following the successful development, launch and implementation of the Emergency Plan of Action in December 2008. The National Plan was announced as pending policy on International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3rd December 2009, but official launch only took place at this meeting. The aim of the workshop was to orientate stakeholders to the Myanmar National Plan of Action for Persons with Disabilities, and provide training in Community Based Rehabilitation/Disability Inclusive Development to facilitate an inclusive approach to development, education and livelihood projects in Myanmar, and to develop necessary networks to facilitate the implementation of the Plan of Action.