Revise disability Act to promote inclusion -Federation of Disability to govt
The President of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisation (GFD), Joseph Atsu Homadzi, has entreated the government to revise the Persons with Disability Act to promote disability inclusion for national development.
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“The call is that, let us all come together with support from stakeholders to amend the disability law, make it strong to ensure the total inclusion of persons with disability in the country,” he added.
The president further said that a review of Act 715 would also require the public to be in line with the UN Convention on the rights of PWDs.
He was speaking at a symposium in Accra yesterday.
It formed part of activities to commemorate the National Day of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) which celebration falls on December 3, 2023, on the theme: “Amend Ghana’s Disability Act Now: A step towards realising the sustainable development goals”.
Mr Homadzi said that the symposium was to raise public awareness of issues PWDs were confronted with.
On an enterprise support programme for PWDs, he appealed to those in charge to ensure funds were disbursed to deserving beneficiaries.
The programme provides training, capacity upgrade and liquidity support to startups, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) owned by PWDs.
Challenges
The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP), Lariba Zuweira Abudu, mentioned some of the challenges PWDs were encountering to include lack of employment opportunities, inaccessible transportation network and infrastructure and high cost of transportation.
“We are progressively making efforts to achieve the full inclusion of persons with disability at all levels of national development,” she said.
SDGs
The Chairperson of the Governing Board of National Council of PWDs, Yaw Ofori Debra, said the country was yet to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of PWDs.
“We continue to wallow in poor conditions and our lives are still in hopelessness”, he said.
Mr Debra said in September this year, the UN member countries would gather in New York to make assessment of the SDGs.
He, therefore, appealed to the global body to pay more attention to PWDs and other vulnerable groups during their deliberations.