SAFOD
Southern Africa Federation
of the Disabled
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African Decade (2010 -2019)
The African Decade of Disabled Persons is coming to an end in December 2009.
When people with disabilities in Africa lobbied their governments to develop a Decade focusing on disability issues, there was all the excitement that the Decade objectives as clearly stated in the Continental Plan of Action adopted by the African Union Heads of State and Government would be achieved in the first ten years of the New Millennium. The following are the Decade objectives:
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Formulating or reformulating policies and national programmes that encourage the full participation of persons with disabilities in social and economic development;·
Creating or reinforcing national disability coordination committees, and ensure effective representation of persons with disabilities and their organisations;·
Supporting community-based service delivery, in collaboration with international development agencies and organisations;·
Promoting more efforts that encourage positive attitudes towards children, youth, women, and adults with disabilities and implementation of measures to ensure their access to rehabilitation, education, training and employment as well as to cultural and sports activities and access to the physical environment;·
Developing programmes that alleviate poverty amongst people with disabilities and their families;·
Mainstreaming disability on the social, economical and political agendas of African governments;·
Spearheading the implementation of the UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for People with Disabilities, and ensure the use of the Standard Rules as a basis for policy and legislation to protect the interests of people with disabilities in Africa;·
Apply all African Union and UN human rights instruments to promote and monitor the rights of persons with disabilities. All these objectives were expected to help realise the goal of the Decade, which is "the full participation, equality and empowerment of people with disabilities in Africa". The question, however, is to what extent have these objectives been addressed during the Decade? Has anything good come out of this Decade?Following the declaration of the Decade, a Secretariat and Board comprising continental bodies of the disability movement and the African Rehabilitation Insitute (ARI) were established with the support of the South African government and international partners to monitor the implementation of the Decade Continental Plan of Action. It is important to assess the performance of the Decade Secretariat, African Rehabilitation Institute, the disability movement itself and other stakeholders during this period. As we do this, we need to cast our minds back to the early years of the Decade when the voice of people with disabilities, through their organisations, was so vibrant and so united that it could make mountains move! Some of us who took part in some of the lobby work of the Decade still have vivid memories about a delegation that travelled all the way to the African Union Headquaters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to deliver a message to the then African Union Secretary General Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim. We were concerned that the African Union was rather slow in responding to our call for the African Decade of Person with Disabilities. When we got into the lobby of the African Union building we were met by a flight of stairs and so we could not access the Secretary General's office.
A quick decision was then made by the African Union that an Assistant Secretary General, Ambassador Pascal Gayama, meets with us in a "make-shift boardroom" a few metres away from the flight of stairs in the foyer!
It turned out to be a successful meeting, and immediately things started to happen. Although there was a slow start to the Decade activities, there was a lot of excitement then; people with disabilities
in Africa became more united around the Decade.
| Secretariat for the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities Achieving the Millennium Development Goals download here | |
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Last updated
24-Feb-2009 |