Sightsavers, JONAPWD advocate disability inclusion in implementation of SDGs

By Palma Ileye

Sightsavers in collaboration with Joint National Association of Persons with Disability, JONAPWD has advocated for the inclusion in implementation of Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, for Persons with Disability.

This advocacy call was made during a One-Day Consultations with Organisation of Person with Disability on Mid-term Review of Disability Inclusion in Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, held yesterday in Abuja.

Speaking during the event, Deputy Director, OSSAP-SDGs, Dr Zakariya Mohammed said that the partnership with Sightsavers was to develop IDC for the country adding that the documents was almost reaching validation stage.

Concerning the issues of People with Disability, Mohammed said that all their voices must be heard and must be represented in the data, so that nobody was excluded in decision making, resource allocation as well as to enable accurate and appropriate inclusion process.

He said that his office undertakes quality national review which was a kind of communication that reports to the global community adding that this exercise was going to be part of its presentations at the UNGA.

Also Sightsavers Country Advocate, Esther Bature noted that the essence of these consultations was to make recommendations to the Government, to enable them make commitments that were inclusive for Person with Disability at the SDG Summit.

Saying that, “And whatever these recommendations are, were coming from the Persons with Disability themselves, so we hope that when we do that, we want to handover these recommendations to the HM of Humanitarian Affairs to take it forward.”

Bature stated that the consultations was not about the challenges, but was targeting the span on actualization of SDGs for Persons with Disability, interms of their slogan ‘leaving no one behind’ and these consultations seeks to know if the implementation of SDGs for Persons with Disability has been actualized.

“We want to know if the implementation has been actualized,” she emphasized.

On the importance of the consultations, she said that, “this is an extraordinary opportunity for the voices and concerns of Person with Disability to be heard in the highest echelon, so we work with JONAPWD to mobilize their members across the Geopolitical zones, across the disability clusters, to come together and hold a consultation to talk about SDGs implementation in the grassroot from their own perspectives as Persons with Disability, are they being carried along, is the SDGs implementation inclusive.”

“There is an SDG Summit happening next week, so that when they go to the Summit, they will make commitments that were inclusive,” she said.

At the end of the One-day Consultations, the recommendations from the OPDS in Nigeria for the SDG Summit read, “The following are key recommendations proposed by participants—
The various social intervention programs should be reviewed by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning, and the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, NCPWD, with a view to accommodating the peculiar issues and concerns of PWDs such as disability costs, diversity within the disability spectrum, accessibility, reasonable accommodation, etc.

“The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities should work with relevant health MDAs to develop and implement guidelines to support the design and implementation of disability-inclusive and accessible health services. This should take cognisance of the peculiar health needs of women with disabilities as well as persons with intellectual, developmental, psychosocial, and other severe disabilities.
Notwithstanding the on-going review of the National Policy on Inclusive Education, it is recommended that the NCPWD collaborate with other education MDAs to develop and implement standards and guidelines in line with the policy that will help to regulate disability-inclusive classroom and school practices.

“The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities should collaborate with appropriate women-focused MDAs to develop and implement appropriate disability-based gender framework that will mitigate the gender gaps in the Disability Act 2018.

“The Federal Ministry of Labour, the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities and other relevant MDAs should collaborate to design and implement disability-inclusive labour, employment and entrepreneurship skills development framework that will help PWDs access gainful employment and business opportunities.

“The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities should work with research institutes, universities, and other relevant stakeholders to develop and implement a nationwide technical support program for MDAs of government at national, state and local levels; the private sector; development sector and the media with a view to constantly providing them with both technical and institutional capacities required to implement the Disability Act.

“All MDAs should be mandated to create Disability Desks manned by top management officers who should be PWDs with a view to promoting their participation at the level of policy and decision-making.”

Adding that, the Federal Government should adopt the Washington Group Questions Sets, WGQS, for disability-disaggregation of data and integrate same into all population data collection tools and instruments in the country.