The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) on Friday concluded a four-day training of 140 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Public Institutions officers on disability-inclusive programmes and practices.
The Tide’s source reports that the training for the officers from Edo and Abia Sttaes took place in Benin.
It was done in collaboration with Project Enable Africa with support from the US – Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund.
The theme of the training was: Promoting inclusive economic opportunities and community resilience for Persons with Disabilities.
The training, which was broken into two parts, also had Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) trained on Rights Advocacy and Advocacy Action Plan.
Speaking during the training, Mr David Anyaele, the Special Adviser to Abia State Governor on PWDs, said the centre had picked 70 CSOs each in Edo and Abia.
Anyaele, who is also the Director and Founder of CCD, said the capacity building for CSOs would help them know the key issues affecting persons with disabilities in their states.
“We recognized that Edo has passed disability law and for it to be implemented, the civil society must be in tune with the rules and how to go about helping the PWDs advocate for their rights.
“The disability community is made up of people who cannot walk, hear and see, therefore we are involving CSOs to appreciate the key issues concern in our efforts to promote inclusive economic opportunity and a community that is all inclusive.
“And to do this, we need to build the capacity of the CSOs. The response we have gotten from here shows that the civil society are really committed in ensuring that the vulnerable group are not left behind”, he said.
Speaking on the topic, Inclusive budgeting, Anyaele said government at all levels must take proactive measures to ensure that their budgeting process recognized the needs of vulnerable groups in the society.
“When we say inclusive budgeting, we are talking about a process of generating, interpreting, programming and designing budget that takes the critical importance of physical responsibility in government .
“What we are doing here today is to build the capacity of CSOs to champion inclusiveness of PWDs in budgetary allocations”, he said.
Also speaking, Ms. Florence Attah, the Programme officer of CCD, disclosed that over 29 million Nigerians live with one form of disability or the other.
The CCD Programme Officer, who quoted the 2018 World Bank statistics, noted that the figure might have increased.
She, however, lamented that the lack of comprehensive database of PWDs had made it impossible to get the accurate data of PWDs in the country.
The Acting Director of CCD, Mr. Godwin Unumeri took participants through policy analysis and engagement with a charge to the CSOs to ensure policies of government were all inclusive.
Comrade Bartholomew Okoudo, President, Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations CONGOS and Aliu Akokhia, Executive Director, Sustainable Health Family and Maternal Support Initiative commended the centre for the capacity building workshop.
They noted that the training was not just only a refresher course but impacted on them those things they were not conversant with, especially the Inclusive-budgeting for PWDs.