LDPA (Lao Disabled People’s Association) is established in 2001 and is a membership-based organisation for people with disability advocating disability rights and providing services to members based on their needs. The LDPA is one of the few officially recognised non profit associations in Lao PDR. The LDPA is also an officially registered civil society organisation.

The LDPA has over 9,000 members from across the country, but seeks to represent the interests of all people with disability within Lao PDR irrespective of their membership status. The LDPA does this at national and provincial level. At the LDPA’s head office in Vientiane Capital, they work in partnership with several organisations on strategic advocacy and rights-based projects. LDPA also provide outreach, opportunity and empowerment at a provincial level where members are organised into groups (cells) coordinated by cell secretaries.

Vision: People with disabilities are fully accepted and participate in all aspects of society.
Goal:
1. Civil society organisations, the private sector and government are fully aware of and understand issues related to disability rights.
2. LDPA head office and provincial branch offices have strong organisational capacity and leadership and are able to effectively represent all people with disabilities.
3. LDPA is recognised as knowledgeable and skilled in the disability sector in the Lao PDR.
4. LDPA establishes strong co-ordination and networks with other disabled people’s organisations and with civil society organisations.
5. LDPA promotes independent living in society for people with disabilities.

This project allows LDPA to bring together its experience in the areas of livelihood, disability rights promotion, community mobilisation and advocacy in a single geographic area for the first time. The project builds on previous experiences in the areas of livelihood support and disability rights promotion, but includes newly designed activities aimed to inform persons with disabilities about their rights to access local services, strategies to support improved accessibility of local services and the roles and responsibilities of local authorities and service providers in their communities.

The project supports awareness and training not only for persons with disabilities, but also for local authorities and service providers and bring all of these key target groups together to design and implement local action plans to remove barriers that limit access to services for persons with disabilities.