by Chris Agbo,
In continuation of the 3rd of June 2021 Stakeholders’ consultation on strengthening the implementation of the Disability Act for Accessibility of Services for persons with disabilities under her DATA 360 project supported by FORD FOUNDATION which was geared towards the participants building a consensus and providing a framework / guide to MDAs, CSOs, etc on how to strengthen the implementation of the Act and sensitize those who do not know their roles and responsibilities on implementation of the Act.
Disability Rights Advocacy Center (DRAC) on Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th June, 2021 brought together representatives of MDAs, CSOs and OPDs in a technical meeting to brainstorm around three thematic areas identified in the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2021 which are Services, Public Infrastructure, Access to Transportation. The participants were expected to identify the gaps based on the present situation in the implementation, make recommendations/ actions, develop activities, identify the indicators to measure the intending success and also identify the expected outcome.
In the two days, there were a lot of hard work, intense discussions and presentations, the participants were divided into three groups to work on the different thematic areas and they made key findings and recommendations and practical activities that will enrich the final document.
The Guideline for implementation is a document that DRAC is developing to guide the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities and other MDAs on the implementation of the Nigeria Disability Act.
TQM learnt that at the end of the technical meeting that the consultants alongside DRAC team would harvest the inputs made by the participants and produce the final document. DRAC will also invite the technical working group for one-day validation to look at the produced document and make the final input before the document would be presented to the public.
