SAFOD

Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled

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JOBS HURRY HURRY!!!

·Co-ordination of the Research Programme with the SAFOD member DPOs and with other disability programmes in the region to avoid duplication and to promote synergies;

·Ensuring gender dimensions are mainstreamed into research themes;

·Terminating unsuccessful activities;

·Act asan ex-officio member of the SRP Technical Advisory Board (TAB);

·Ensuring timely delivery of the activities of the SRP;

·Reviewing the progress of the SRP in terms of potential impact on disability policy and practice;

·Disseminating and promoting the use of SRP-generated knowledge for the benefit of disabled people in SAFOD member countries;

·Line management of SRP staff, which includes a Research Programme Manager and a Communictions Officer;

·Financial management of the budget and expenditure of the SRP;

·Safe-guarding any database of knowledge generated by the SRP so that it remains accessible after the research programme ends;

·Safeguarding any work that may be commissioned to contribute to the achievement of the purposes established for the SRP.

Overall responsibility for implementing the SRP programme.

Development of the SRP will include the following tasks:

·Identification of future research activities;

·Identifying the stakeholders for research outputs within and beyond the SRP,

·With the advice of the Communications Manager, establish the means by which these outputs may be used and how they should be packaged and promoted;

·Establishing strategic relationships with SRP partners and with other collaborating research institutions in target countries to promote the transfer of knowledge to stakeholders;

·Development of new consortium milestones for agreement with DFID.

The Research Director may identify and commission work to achieve the outputs within the annual budgets and the financial limit set by the contract.

General

Taking into consideration the views of the Technical Advisory Board, establish all necessary arrangements to achieve the SRP outputs in a cost-effective way and to achieve best value for money in the commissioning of activities;

Establish and maintain liaison with relevant DFID advisers and with local institutions in SAFOD-member countries in which research activities are to be implemented;

Set up criteria for commissioning research and ensure research proposals are fully appraised to ensure that quality, developmental relevance and demand criteria are met;

The Communications Manager will be an expert in communicating research. The post will be full-time and the post-holder will report to the Research Programme Director.

·Planning and implementing a communications strategy for the SRP in consultation with research and management staff;

·Undertaking a communications assessment for the entire programme, including the capacity and needs of the SRP partners to collaborate and deliver communications components;

·Undertaking stakeholder analyses, in collaboration with research staff, to identify key audiences for research findings at different stages of research;

·Ensuring the identification and establishment of effective dissemination of research findings to key stakeholders;

·Packaging of research in a form appropriate for use by stakeholders, including disabled people;

·Working with research staff to produce outputs, mostly in print and electronic formats, such as policy briefings, resource guides, comments and opinion pieces, drawing on research findings as they emerge;

·Maintaining the SRP website, including monitoring of use and establishing subscription mechanisms for interested parties;

·Producing SRP newsletters, periodically;

·Promotion of research products to target institutions and beneficiaries;

·Syntheses of knowledge and lesson-learning on specific themes;

·Maintain effective relationships with SRP partners and with other collaborating research institutions in target countries to promote the transfer of knowledge to stakeholders;

·Ensure effective design and implementation of all research projects being conducted under the programme;

·Advise the Research Director on all matters relating to the implementation of the research programme and standard operating procedures and project management;

·Ensure that good relations are maintained in all the communities in which research is being conducted through regular and scheduled community meetings;

·Represent the programme at community functions and fora as required to provide information to community leaders /DPOs and partners about the programme and research conduct;

·Liaise with Director General to ensure local capacity building throughout SAFOD via sharing of experience in research management and, where appropriate, dissemination of key findings.

·Development of a Communications Strategy to ensure the efficient and effective systems of dissemination and communication of SRP research products and findings to key stakeholders;

·Development of a capacity building programme to strengthen SRP member capacity to undertake disability research and disseminate findings;

·Establishment of outreach and mobilization programmes on disability research and related advocacy activities to effect change on the basis of key findings;

·Establishment and maintenance of a resource center holding documentation and information regarding disability policy and practice, as well as housing SRP programme research products;

·Maintenance of a database of SRP stakeholders as part of the communications strategy.

E-mail: safod@botsnet.bw

Published 05 January, 2009

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AFRICAN DECADE OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES EXTENDED TO DECEMBER 2019!!

This is to announce that the AU Continental Decade of Persons with Disabilities has been extended to December 2019.

The Windhoek Declaration on Social Development adopted by Ministers in Charge of Social Development on 31 October 2008, adopted Resolution 6, which reads as follows:

 ‘6. ADOPT the extension of the Continental Decade of Persons with Disabilities for the period 2010-2019; CALL for the evaluation of the existing Decade and its Plan of Action (1999-2009) and the speedy conclusion of the evaluation and restructuring of the African Rehabilitation Institute (ARI)’

 In addition to the resolution extending the Decade, the Windhoek Declaration also adopted resolution 5(x) which reads as follows:

 ‘5. Further commit ourselves to implement the priority strategies under the key thematic social issues spelt out in the Social Policy Framework for Africa, through the following:

(x)        Empowering and providing persons with disabilities with equal opportunities, safeguarding their rights and enlisting their participation and mainstreaming them in all development programmes’

The new Social Development Policy adopted by the Ministers in Windhoek Namibia has detailed coverage of disability work. We encourage organisations to get a copy of this policy and apply its contents in your programming processes.

 We would like to thank all organisations (notably PAFOD, AFUB, and others), SADPD Staff and leaders, Panel of Experts/Parliamentarians, Pan African Parliament, ARI, the African Union Social Affairs Commission, our Development Partners (DPOD, Sida, DFID, and Southern Africa Trust), CBM and those that supported our down-line networks and DPOs for their support during the first Decade and the campaign towards extension.

We look forward to hard work during the next ten years. We now have the benefit of learning from the mistakes that we made and the experience of managing an initiative of this nature.

MORE INFORMATION ON THE FIRST DECADE

The African Union declared the first decade of the new millennium (1999-2009) as the African Decade for Persons with Disabilities. In 2001 the African Union’s Labour and Social Affairs Commission along with its African Rehabilitation Institute (ARI) and the ILO held a meeting in Addis Ababa. In this meeting they designed a Continental Plan of Action (CPOA) to guide the member states of the African Union on how to implement the African Decade. The adoption of the African Decade of Disabled Persons (ADDP) placed responsibility on African States to implement Decade Programme activities.

With this declaration, the African Union adopted a Continental Plan of Action (CPOA) with twelve objectives that African States were to implement over the period.

The twelve objectives cover a wide range of themes that are of critical importance to improvement in the lives of persons with disabilities in Africa. These themes include ideas and strategies to:

1. Formulate and implement national policies, programmes and legislation to promote the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities.

2.  Promote the participation of persons with disabilities in the process of economic and social development

3.  Promote the self-representation of people with disabilities in all public decision-making structures.

4.  To enhance support services for disabled persons.

5.  Promote special measures for children, youth, women and elderly persons with disabilities.

6. Ensure and improve access to rehabilitation, education, training, employment, sports, the cultural and physical environment.

7.To promote and protect disability rights as human rights

8.To support the development of and strengthen Disabled Persons’ Organizations

9. Mobilize resources

These objectives where meant to be implemented by Africa States, with the cooperation of civil society organisations.

 Published 12 November 2008