By Chris Agbo,
Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) has called on Federal Government to build the capacity of Ministries, Departments and Agencies to understand their roles and responsibilities on implementation of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2018.
This call was made as a recommendation to the findings from CCD’s Assessment of Compliance to National Disability Act (2018) by Public Institutions in Abuja. The assessment was conducted to assess the knowledge and perception of public institution actors on implementation of National Disability Act 2018 in Abuja, determine the level of compliance of line MDAs to the provision in the act, identify challenges of implementing the provisions in the act, understand the current social context of persons with disabilities in FCT, and make recommendations for proper implementation and enforcement of National Disability Act 2018.
The Executive Director, CCD, David Anyaele said that the meeting was to present CCD findings on the Compliance to the implementation of Discrimination against persons with disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2018 by Public institution in Abuja.
He also said that the initiative was supported by Ford foundation and the project is designed to generate evidence around implementation of Disability Rights Act to guide state and non-state actors in their effort to enforce and implement Disability Rights Act.
He reminded that it took over 18 years struggle for PWDs to get Disability Rights Act so CCD is making effort to ensure their rights of PWDs is respected by state and non-state actors and also ensuring that they understand their roles and responsibilities and also monitoring how they are carrying out the implementation to ensure that PWDs benefit from the law.
“We appreciate the fact the rights of PWDs would be made manifest if the state actors take the lead in protecting the rights of PWDs” he added.
He stated that the assessment of compliance to the implementation of Disability Rights Law by CCD is not only taking place in Abuja, CCD have also carried out assessment of Lagos state government on how their institutions are responding Lagos State Law for PWDs.
He informed that CCD assessed line ministries, department and agencies marked as line MDAs on disability issues to in line with National Policy on Rehabilitation of Persons with disabilities in Nigeria.
He called on MDAs to respect the rights of PWDs by identifying the key areas that are pertinent to them to ensure that it is implemented.
“National Assembly should pay ample attention to Ministries response to the implementation of the rights of PWDs and the outcome of this assessment should serve as a tool for Ministries to review their process and conduct audit on what they are doing and how they are doing it and identify if the programmes and services are targeting PWDs” he concluded.
The survey which covered a broad of PWDs from different clusters, ethnic background, age categories, diverse educational background and different professions including MDAs and OPDs, have key findings:
- Majority of the policy actors in public institutions were aware of the Act but have shallow knowledge of the specific provisions of the Act as regards to their roles and responsibilities which made their level of compliance weak.
- A good of PWDs are not aware of the specific provisions in the Act but the representatives from Disability Right Organization interviewed showed satisfactory knowledge of the specific provisions in the Act
- There is no stand-alone policy on disability in those institutions interviewed. The most recorded compliance was provision of accessibility aids such as ramps and elevators while compliance in terms of equal employment opportunities, provision of sign language interpreters, approval of building code, building of inclusive education and health care services for PWDs at public institutions as a form of promoting accessibility, inclusion and social welfare for PWDs were reported to be largely unsatisfactory.
- The general view of PWDs and representatives of Disability Rights Organizations was that implementation of the National Disability Act still remains low due to the absence of budget lines for disability affairs in concerned public institution as National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD), Ministry of Finance among others, lack of political will and poor knowledge among policy actors.
- The study consequently established that the Act has been weakly enforced and implemented by majority of the public institutions in Abuja. Thus, PWDs are still facing plethora of challenges on accessibility, inclusion and social welfare in FCT.
Through the findings, the CCD went further to make recommendations that would assist various groups/organs to implement Nigeria Disability Act:
- Government should adopt a multi sectoral approach to the task of successfully elimination the physical, communication, attitudinal and institutional Barriers faced by PWDs. Specifically, NCPWD saddled with the implementation responsibility should build synergy with other concerned line MDAs through consistent advocacy, sensitization and collaboration to scale up proper implementation and enforcement of the Act.
- Government should set aside specific yearly, a budget line for all the concerned line MDAs to scale up efforts towards the inclusion and welfare of PWDs, especially by prioritizing their welfare during health emergencies such as ravaging COVID-19 Pandemic.
- The National Assembly should take appropriate measures to ensure that MDAs implement the Act through oversight and budgetary approvals
- The line MDAs capacity should be built on their roles and responsibilities for full operationalization of Nigeria Disability Act 2018
- Federal Ministry of Information and Culture should roll out information, education and Communication programs for the implementation of section 2 of Nigeria Disability Act 2018.
- Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) and mainstream Civil Society Organization (CSOs) working on disability issues should strengthen the capacity of their members and constituencies on disability rights using the NDA and UNCRPD as a guide
- Disability Rights Organizations should scale up efforts in holding policy actors accountable through consistent aggressive advocacy, public sensitization and awareness creation in order to ensure inclusion of PWDs in national development programs and activities.
- International Development Partners/Funders should ensure access and inclusion of persons with disabilities in all their development support activities towards Nigeria government through implementation of NDA.
The representative of Executive Secretary, National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Mr. Lawrence Idemudia, Acting Director, Social Integration, NCPWD in response to the report of the findings appreciated CCD for helping the Commission in monitoring the level of compliance by MDAs in implementation of Disability Rights Act. He recalled that CCD was at the forefront to ensure that we have Disability Right Law in Nigeria and even the Commission that we have today.
He called for more States to enact disability law so that compliance would be assessed across all states not just few states where the law is applicable. The case of PWDs should not be for Federal Government alone, States should also comply to the law and every other should join hands with NCPWD, CCD and other OPDs to change the narrative of PWDs in Nigeria.
MDAs such National Human Right Commission, National Orientation Agency, Ministry of Works, Humanitarian Affairs etc and OPDs were in attendance.
TQM learnt that CCD would be distributing the report of the findings to MDAs and International Agencies so that they would all understand the level of compliance to the implementation of Disability Rights Act in Nigeria.
