News
UN leaders in Zimbabwe call for strengthened disability inclusion
The United Nations (UN) Zimbabwe Resident Coordinator, Mr Edward Kallon, has called on disability partners to enhance disability inclusion for equal enjoyment of rights by all. He said this during the official opening of the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities organized consultative workshop with persons with disabilities in Harare in April 2024. Attended by over 50 participants drawn from the UN family, UNPRPD Project Team, Disability Activists, and 16 Organizations of Persons with disabilities, the consultations focused on “Strengthening Disability Inclusion in the Common Country Analysis and Zimbabwe United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework UNSDCF (2022-2026)”.
The Common Country Analysis is an important reference document for evaluating achievements, challenges and opportunities regarding the UN engagement in the country. It is time we look at the socioeconomic development and political situation in any given country where the UN is present. We need to appreciate progress and gaps in development and work together to identify opportunities to help support the development aspirations of governments we serve.
He highlighted how the consultation was ongoing in updating the Common Country Analysis, and the enhancement of disability inclusion within the UNSDCF (2022-2026). He further expressed his gratitude for the affirmative actions being pursued by the government of Zimbabwe to understand, appreciate, and work towards enhancing the participation of persons with disabilities in the governance of the country.
The UNESCO Regional Director for Southern Africa, Ms Nisha called on the participants to invest resources in facilitating disability inclusion.
Disability as an issue should be and must remain an issue that needs to be addressed, mainstream development processes, even when it requires some measures to facilitate inclusion.
Key issues raised during the consultations include the inclusion of persons with disabilities on the old people's pension scheme, provision of Information, Education and Communication materials in an accessible format, as well as the inclusion of marginalized groups including children with intellectual disabilities, and youth with cerebral palsy, in the education system.
Participants noted gaps in inclusive education, bemoaning the lack of teacher capacitation to accommodate students with visual impairments, owing to lack of equipment by schools to provide the relevant resources required in the learning process. The country's two disability umbrella bodies, Federation of Organizations of Disabled People in Zimbabwe (FODPZ) and National Association of Societies for the Handicapped (NASCOH), called on the UN to support addressing of gaps in accessing information (in accessible formats) by persons with disabilities. The OPDs appreciated the UN's continued support in consultations towards the recently gazetted Persons with Disabilities Bill to ensure active and meaningful participation of those in “hard-to-reach communities”.
OPDs underscored the importance of inclusion and effective representation of all persons with disabilities, especially the commonly left out under-represented groups such as deaf and blind children and adults, children with down syndrome and autism, children with disabilities in the rural areas and parents with children with disabilities in the rural areas.
With climate change affecting everyone, the consultations also brought to light some its effects which exacerbate discrimination and affects the daily lives of persons with disabilities.
Our request is on the drought, because more often when there is a disaster, we are the last to be considered, so our appeal as we build frameworks for national responses to this drought, is that persons with disabilities will not be an afterthought.
It is through such active participation and consultations on the perspectives and insights of persons with disabilities that the UN can facilitate an informed policy advocacy and initiatives that are more inclusive and equitable. The Common Country Analysis is anchored on the 5Ps - People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnerships - of the 2030 Agenda to analyze in an integrated manner, some of the common underlying and root causes of identified key development challenges. Through this consultation, the CCA Update examines changes in the types, numbers and conditions of vulnerable and marginalized groups left behind or at risk of exclusion since the publication of the CCA in 2021, including persons with disabilities.
