TQM Report,
Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC) Programme ( Funded by the European Union) on Thursday in Abuja organized Stakeholders Meeting on the Implementation Strategy on Access to Employment for Persons with Disabilities & Public Presentation of the Simplified Disability Act.
The event brought together some leaders in disability community such as Dr. Irene Patrick-Ogbogu, Lawrence Idemudia, Barr. Ikem Uchegbunam, Emeka Berthram, Agbo Christian, Kassim Lawal, Barr. Catherine Edeh, Barr. Florence Marcus, Patience Dickson, Mr. James Lalu, The Executive Secretary, National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD), among others.
The Executive Secretary, National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Mr. James while unveiling the simplified version of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2018 which was prepared by Dr. Irene Patrick-Ogbogu, commended ROLAC for making effort to ensure that Disability Act is brought to easy understanding of everyone, he pleaded that the simplified version be produce in different local languages for people in the rural communities where it is very important that they know their rights and always report any act of complaints.
He informed that the Commission are working to produce an application that would be available in Google play store which would enable persons with disabilities to report cases of violation. He explained that the app will also provide opportunity for someone to upload evidences and the Commission is ready to take such cases and ensure that justice is served.
He promised that the Commissoon would be collaborating with ROLAC to ensure that the implementation strategy present by the group becomes successful.
The simplified version of Disability Act presented to the public were of two languages, English and Pidgin.
Earlier in the meeting, Implementation Strategy on Access to Employment for Persons with Disabilities was presented by Dr. Israel Balogun, one of the four consultants who carried out the findings in Kano, Adamawa, Lagos, Anambra and FCT.
It is one of the ways ROLAC is advancing the implementation of the Disability Rights Law at the federal and state levels including creating awareness on the provisions of the Disability Act.
Through the programme, ROLAC supported Nigerian stakeholders to develop the implementation strategy that would ensure that the barriers faced by persons with disabilities to work are removed and their right to work and employment is promoted; and the strategy was validated by relevant stakeholders in August 2020.
The document identified the statistics of employment of PWDs, the barriers, recommendations and the participants also assist made input in the next line of action in the implementation of the findings.
TQM learnt that in the implementation strategy identified, ROLAC would be working with Organizations of Persons with Disabilities, Civil Society Organization, the media and other relevant stakeholders.
Some pictures of the meeting;
