TQM report,
Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) on Thursday 22nd April, 2021 in Abuja presented the Evidence Sharing for Situation Analysis Report on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Social Protection in Nigeria.
IFA with the support from Save the Children (SCI) and Action against Hunger (AAH) Child Development Grant Programme (CDGP) embarked on the Situational Analysis to collect evidence on the inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities in social protection policies, programs and processes in Nigeria.
It was conducted across four states, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano and Zamfara States.
The Executive Director of IFA, Grace Jerry in her welcome remark said that Social Protection programmes are meant to reduce the shocks that citizens would be exposed to going by the widespread and deepening poverty which has placed 51% of Nigerian population that is 105, 057,896 persons in extreme poverty. She also said that it is crucial for persons with disabilities whose literacy rate for youth with disabilities are 30% compared to 65% of youths without disabilities. 63% of adults with disabilities are unemployed and 30% of out of school are those with disabilities.
She informed that through their findings, 5.7 million persons are in the National Social Register (NSR) as at December, 31, 2020 and 4.8% of these numbers estimating about 274, 000 are persons with disabilities, at the state level, only 10% of persons with disabilities and their leaders are aware of the social register and the rest are not aware of it.
Speaking further on their finding, she said that in both the National and state programmes, disability extra costs were not considered, across the four states, persons with disabilities and leaders of OPDs applauded few among the social protection programmes; Jigawa, Kano and Kaduna State have existing disability laws while Zamfara disability law are at the legislation stages and both Jigawa and Kano disability laws make provision for employment, economic ,empowerment, education, prohibit discrimination and 95% of the OPDs indicated that they have no access to environments where State Office Coordinating Unit (SOCU) as it was conducted by Focused Group Discussions.
She called on OPDs to study the document to understand and articulate their advocacy messages to engage the government in order to increase the number of persons with disabilities in the hinterlands in the social protection programmes.
Include me project lead, Jesse John, a program officer at IFA in his presentation pointed out some recommendations in accordance with the document, which will help to enhance the inclusion of persons with disabilities in social protection programmes. He said that stakeholders should take some actions to close the gap of exclusion, such actions are; strengthening the data instrument and methodology at NASSCO to be disability inclusive, that is data instrument used by NASSCO for social register be revised to capture and mainstream disability data and possibly disability needs rather than holding a separate disability data collection process; Increase institutional capacity of OPDs on Social Protection,there is needs for the capacity of OPDs to be built at state level to understand what is and how social protection works.
Speaking further, he informed that through the report, IFA also recommended that Revising the social protection policy and governance framework, Social protection policy in the four state, there were inclusion of PWDs in specific domain, there is need to ensure that all domain are inclusive for all PWDs throughout the life cycle; Practicing an inclusive awareness and communication strategy, OPDs should increase significantly the information dissemination; Disability Standalone Scheme, in order to ameliorate the issue of disability extra cost, there is need to create standalone social protection programme for persons with disabilities.
The highlight of the event was the unveiling of the SITAN report when Grace Jerry while unveiling the document called on OPDs, NASSCO, State government and MDAs to work together to ensure that persons with disabilities are included in social protection programmes and policies. She thanked specially the Save the Children Nigeria for their technical and financial support for the project and their deliberate effort towards the inclusion of persons with disabilities in social protection programmes.
She informed that IFA is practicing nothing about us without us by engaging the services of a person with disability, Razak Adekoya who carried out the Situation Analysis.
There were two notable individuals at the meeting who made remarks, Esthelle Agulu, Social Inclusion Officer, Save The Children, who commended IFA and urge OPDs and other stakeholders to use the findings and engage the authority to enhance PWDs inclusion in the Social Protection programme and JONAPWD FCT Chairman, Alhaji Abdulmumuni Ujah who acknowledged the importance of the report and pledge the commitment of OPDs to study the document and work with it.
The event was attended by members of JONAPWD FCT, disability rights advocates and some members of the press.
Watch Grace Jerry welcome remark:
