Ministry of Foreign Affairs NL

Oxfam Novib

Oxfam Novib

UGANDA NATIONAL ACTION ON PHYSICAL

Uganda National Action on Physical Disability (UNAPD) was founded in 1998 as an autonomous umbrella body composed of individual persons with physical disabilities and District Associations in Uganda. The main aim of forming UNAPD was to forge unity amongpersons with physical disabilities for mutual support, share challenges, advocate for their rights, fight their marginalization, educate themon their rights, ensure they are represented at all levels and uplift their standard of living. UNAPD was formedwith a believe thatPWPDs have as much to contribute to national development as anyone else and as result PWPDs must, therefore, be supported by society to develop their full potential to levels that will facilitate their own contribution. UNAPD visualizes #a society where people with physical disabilities live dignified and productive lives#. UNAPD therefore exists to remove barriers that prevent persons with physical disabilities from enjoying their full rights in society. To achieve its purpose,UNAPD has since her founding undertaken a series of structural, policy and cultural transformations in response to the reality of her member#s existence and needs. All her programs have been implemented through well thought and participatory developed strategic and annual work plans. UNAPD has 9 Board ofDirectors of which 4 are women (the youth representative is a woman, national woman representative) on the Secretariat, UNAPD has 13 staff and 5 are women. UNAPD has a 2018 # 2022 strategic plan which is shaping the organization and its work. Over the years UNAPD#s work has also evolved from focusing on short term projects to long term programs. UNAPD#s work focuses on advocacy, networking and partnership building, inclusive education, Economic Empowerment, Inclusive Design/Accessibility as well as institutional and membership development. 2. ACHIEVEMENTS What have been the principal results in the past three years that contribute to significant, structural, sustained and positive improvement in thelives of men, women, girls and boys suffering from poverty, injustice, insecurityand exclusion? Significant achievements of UNAPD over the last five years have included: being an active membership of the disability movement in Uganda as well as aneffective voice articulating issues of People with Physical Disabilities (PWPDs) within the general civil society. UNAPD has impacted a lot on policy/law influence in order to get inclusive legislations for PWDs. UNAPD has engaged in guidelines developmentand policy review to ensure that the laws/legislations passed by the Parliament of Uganda and other local government structures are not discriminatory to PWDs. Of recent, UNAPD worked tirelessly with the Members of Parliament representing PWDs to ensurethat then debated(in 2013) Building Control Bill in Parliament consider the accessibility rights of PWDs through including the Accessibility Standards as a reference policy document on matters of accessibility and inclusion before the enactment by the Parliament. Those efforts bared fruits in that by the time the Act was signed by the President of Uganda in 2013, the Accessibility Standards were adopted as the reference documents and PWDs have to be represented on the various building committees and the National Building Review Board. The National Building Codes/ regulations and implementation guidelines for the Act have been completed and the Act commenced. UNAPD has successfully engaged Nabbaale Sub County in Mukono district to develop, enact and pass a bye-law on accessibility to ensure accessibility to facilities e.g. schools, public structures in the sub county. UNAPD has implemented interventions aimed at promoting inclusive education of CWDs. Among these include; trained 48 teachers from 24different schools in child to child approach to enhance learning of CWDs in schools, mobilised and trained parents of CWDs in different livelihood interventions such as VSLA in order to be able to support their CWDs to attend education, developed guidelines on enrolment and retention of CWDs in schools. These intervention have yielded results such as enrolment of 234 CWDs in schools, 84 parents of CWDs mobilized and trained and 53 of the trained are currently owning different livelihood projects. UNAPD in partnership with the Appropriate Technology Centre (ATC) for WASH under the Ministry of Water and Environment and developed a practical guide for inclusive WASH services at household and community levels in Uganda. This guide is being used by relevant stakeholders in WASH to ensure accessible WASH services for PWDs and vulnerable groups. UNAPD in July 2015 spearheaded a first ever co-creation approach in Uganda of constructing a prototype universal latrine at Kyambogo Primary School to be used by CWDs.Theintervention which attracted participants from both Denmark and Uganda, used a learning approach of research, design and develop a prototype accessible latrine. The latrine was adopted by the ministry of education sports science and technology and iscurrently being replicated in other schools in rural areas. UNAPD in partnership with other NGOs like Uganda Girl Guides Association have trained 42 adolescent girls and boys with disabilities, teachers (senior women teachers) and parents in 8 primaryschools in Masaka and Sembabule districts on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM. The training was aimed at creating awareness/imparting skills on how to make reusable sanitary pads, personal hygiene. UNAPD has been working with World Vision Ugandain Refugeecamps of West Nile region on physical accessibility auditing of WASH facilities such as toilets/latrines, schools, health centres, relief picking point centres. During such interventions, UNAPD makes recommendations on reasonable accommodation/modificationsof the existing facilities in these camps for improved accessibility of PWDs which were actualizedby World Vision. UNAPD worked with KCCA to assess over 20 KCCA schools targeting the WASH facilities that were being constructed to ensurethey are accessible to children with disabilities. UNAPD ensured that the Accessibility standards are used as one of the keyguiding document in constructing an accessible WASH facilities targeting CWDs. Made recommendations on the constructed WASH facilities to be effected to ensure improved access of these facilities to CWDs/PWDs. In 2013, UNAPD lobbied Masaka Chief Administrative Officer #Kweyamba Ruhemba# to construct a model accessible toilet at the district headquarters that is now being used as a model toilettothe construction industry in the surrounding community. UNAPD is the first Disabled Peoples Organisation (DPO) to intervene on issues of PWDs in disaster areas, and begun with conducting a baseline study profiling the status of PWDs in risk <(>&<)> humanitarian emergencies situations in Uganda #a case of disasters in Bududa# which gave birth to a project of Raising the Profile of PWDs in Risk <(>&<)> Emergence Situations. This brings extensive experience in engaging persons with disabilities and other vulnerablepersons using innovative and inclusive approaches. The survey findings indicate that involvement of PWDs is very limited and in most instances non-existent at all and this is due to limited knowledge of program managers on disability inclusion, poor attitudes from the concerned stakeholders, communication barriers especially for the deaf and blind persons, inaccessible infrastructures, lack of skills in influencing, negotiating, lobby and advocacy by PWDs, ignorance of disability rightsby district officials, low education levels among PWDs leading to lack of confidence and low self-esteem, inadequate information access, discriminated by service providers, not being effectively represented on the disaster management committees. Lastly, UNAPDin partnership with NUDOWU, empowered women and girls with disabilities and health workers on their sexual and reproductive health rights of PWDs in Nyaravur sub-county in Nebbi district for effective advocacy of inclusion. As a result of this intervention, management of Nyaravur health centre III constructedan accessible ramp on the health facility as a strategy for easy access to the health units for PWDs and improved on service delivery towards PWDs. 3. INSTITUTIONAL PURPOSE The Vision: UNAPD#s visionis abarrier free environment for people with physical disabilities Mission Statement: An organization dedicated to the removal of barriers in society, which prevent persons with physical disabilities from enjoying their full rights Mission: What isthe current purpose of the organisation? The current purpose of UNAPD is to remove barriers in society, which prevent persons with physical disabilities from enjoying their full rights Institutional objectives: What are the principal changestheorganisation seeks to achieve over the long term? In line with the current UNAPD strategic plan, the following are the expected changes:- 1. Strengthened civic competence and confidence of UNAPD members well equipped to organize into civic rights movements. 2. Well set up and managed programs addressing economic needs of UNAPD members 3. Well set up and managed programs addressing pertinent education needs of CWDs/PWDs. 4. PWDs Centered Policy review and Implementation at National and district Levels i.e. adoption and enforcement of the Building Control Act 2013 and accessibility standards across the country, public legal litigation on violation of accessibility rights of PWPDs 5. A well institutionally developed organization i.e.efficient and effectiverunning organization, restructured and refocused membership, strengthened UNAPD Secretariat and BOD 6. Youth and gender mainstreamed in all UNAPD#s institutional and program processes. Field(s) of activity: What are the principal thematic and geographicareas in which the organization works? Who are the social actors that benefit from the work? UNAPD#s principal thematic areas areAdvocacy, Lobbying and Service Delivery for PWDs (Empowerment), Policy review and Implementation, Accessibility Promotion/Mainstreaming and Institutional Capacity Development. In regard to the geographic areas, UNAPD is a national NGO and its geographical focus has always been the entire country although resource limitations have made this ambition difficultto attain. Thefocus is to increasethe current district membership coverage of 38 districts by 8% per year. In terms of programmes, UNAPD currently implements projects in 13 districts and plans to extend programmes to two new districts per year. At national level, UNAPD focuses on effective policylobby and advocacy to always ensure that concerns of PWDs are mainstreamed into all policy processes. In particular UNAPD works toensure that government adopts to address issues regarding PWDsas expressed inits vision2040 and through NDPs. The social actors benefiting from UNAPD#s work are People with Disabilities in general and people with physical disabilities in particular, parents of children with disabilities, stakeholders in the delivery of health, education, humanitarian and poverty alleviation programs in communities and district technical and political leaders. 4. STRATEGIC POSITIONING Analyse the environment in which the organisation works? Who are the other relevant socialactors, including government and business, and what roles do they play? #In this context, what is unique about the position of the organisation? UNAPD is non- political organization aimed at uniting PWPDs, advocating for theirrights, fulfilling gaps in the representation of PWPDs, fighting marginalization, educating PWPDs on their rights and forming associations as platforms for uplifting the standard of living of PWPDs. UNAPD implements her advocacy projects guided by the existing human rights based legal frameworks suchas the Constitution of Republic of Uganda 1995,PWD#s Act 2006UN-Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (signed by Uganda in 2008), Building Control Act (2013), Special Needs and Inclusive Education Policy (2014), Local Government Act2006 and lastly,thecurrent Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Established in 1998, UNAPD now has a track record of excellence in disability work. Its founding aims of uniting persons with physical disabilities so that they could collectively advocate for their rights and their special needs, forming an organization for persons with physical disabilities, tackling livelihoods challenges for PWDs, promote PWDs participation in political decision making, increasing visibility ofPWDs and tacklingbarriers to social economic emancipation of PWDs are all still very relevant. Since 1998 to date, UNAPD has gone through successivestructural, social, policy and cultural shifts that have resulted into increased membership, funding and visibility. UNAPD is now very well placed as a national actor and builds on the successes recorded to take her work to higher level in the next five years. The relevant social actors, including government and business, and what roles do they play as explained as follows:- Ministryof Health: Advocate for inclusive implementation of the national policy and service standards for sexual and reproductive health and rightsin Uganda Equal Opportunities Commission: We currently work with the commission to carry out Accessibility Audits inall public andprivate places that are established or considered to be of common interests to PWDs Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. With the signing of the Building Control Act by the President in the year 2013, the Ministry ofWorks andTransport developed the Implementation Guidelines but they have to be put into the legal context which is the role of the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. It#s on this ground that UNAPD continuously engages the Ministry to ensureno point of the PWDs is missed out in the regulations. Additionally, having developed a By-Law on accessibility in Mukono District in Nabbaale Sub-county operationalizing it in the entire district we closely work with the same ministry for guidanceso that the By-Law doesn#t contradict with any of the laws of the land. Ministry of Works and Transport. Being the organization that developed the Accessibility Standards, after the enactment of the Building Control Act 2013 which is housed under the Ministry of Works,we have since then worked closely together in the drafting of the Building Code and the Building Control Regulations. The organization has time and time again been engaged in the various meetings and requested by the Ministry tospearhead the committee onthe development of the Accessibility Standards building Code. Suchengagements are expected to carry on until the operationalization of the Act. Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development: This is the line ministry for the organization andworkhand in hand on disability and inclusion issues. Most specially worked togetherin the development of the first ever accessibility standards in 2010 and have worked on the standards implementation and inclusion in the Building Control Act 2013 Disabled Peoples Organizations: Working together to advance disability rights and inclusion in thecountry Ministry of Local Government: In Soroti and Hoima districts, UNAPD is working with the local governments toensure inclusion of PWDs inlocal government planningand budgeting process.