Ministry of Community Development and Social Services Permanent Secretary Ms Angela Kawandami today hosted a strategic engagement meeting between her Ministry and Disability Rights Watch to discuss the progress the country has made in realizing the rights of persons with disabilities and mainstreaming disability in government programmes.

She commended Disability Rights Watch for the work it is doing through strategic advocacy and raising awareness and using the law to defend persons with disabilities. She congratulated DRW for signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Office of the Public Protector – Zambia a move she described as strategic in ensuring the government machinery provides services to persons with disabilities in a timely and respectable manner.

Flanked by Director for Planning, Director for Social Welfare and the Senior Social Welfare Officers, Ms Kawandami expressed government’s commitment to realizing the rights of persons with disabilities.

She explained that government has mainstreamed disability in social protection programmes such as social cash transfer, has appointed persons with disabilities into various boards and commissions to promote the interests of persons with disabilities and is improving the policy and legal framework to better respond to the realization of the rights of persons with disabilities.

Disability Rights Watch Director Wamundila Waliuya thanked the PS for meeting with DRW and highlighted key issues that required action from the state. The issues he raised were the need for the state to respond to the List of Issues published by the CRPD Committee in response to the civil society alternative report and the initial state report. He reminded government that the second report from the state is due. He also reminded government of the Global Disability Summit Commitments and the need to provide a report on progress.

He also touched on the need for Zambia to ratify the Africa Disability Protocol. The final issue he raised was on the need for government to expedite the process of issuing Statutory Regulations to the Persons with Disabilities Act.

In response to the issues raised, the PS and her team admitted that progress is slow as the Ministry does not have adequate financial, human and other resources. She also explained that ratification process is done in line with legislation through the Ministry of Justice and added that her team is working on these issues proactively.

She said it is important for her ministry to be kept on its toes and asked the two partners to identify priorities in terms of the short term, medium term and the long term.