Consumer protection is a fundamental right that guarantees individuals access to products and services without discrimination. However, people with disabilities (PWDs) in Southeast Asia frequently encounter major challenges, such as inaccessible services, a lack of financial inclusion, and insufficient legal assistance.
This workshop intends to address these issues by increasing collaboration among policymakers, companies, and disability activists to develop a more inclusive consumer protection framework. By bringing together important stakeholders, the event will promote best practices, explore policy reforms, and establish concrete strategies to increase consumer protection for people with disabilities in Southeast Asian nations.
To promote inclusive business practices in Asia, the ASEAN-German Project on #ConsumerProtection in ASEAN II (PROTECT II) and ASEAN Disability Forum (ADF) were organising the Regional Workshop on Inclusive Business Practices in Bangkok on 24-26 February 2025, inviting 8 representatives of the consumer associations and 18 representatives of the organisations of persons with disabilities in ASEAN.
They gather for two days to discuss crosscutting issues from the perspective of consumer protection, accessible information, ensuring product safety elements, offering various options, channelling consumer voice, and redress mechanisms. In the last sessions, participants are invited to brainstorm the follow-up project activity that is feasible to conduct in each ASEAN country and possibly to be supported by GIZ. Before closing the workshop in the roundtable dinner, participants also visited Steps an inclusive social entrepreneurship in Thailand.