By IDA

 - May 23, 2018

The African Disability Forum (ADF), in partnership with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Task Team on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action and the International Disability Alliance (co-chair of the Task Team), is holding a regional multi-stakeholder consultation for the African region in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 23 – 24 May 2018. The consultation has been made possible from support by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg and the Women’s Refugee Committee.

The workshop is the fifth in a series of regional consultations supporting the development of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action (“the Guidelines”). The African Regional Consultation Workshop brings together more than 60 participants comprising organizations of persons with disabilities (DPOs), UN agencies, ICRC, humanitarian and development stakeholders and governments based in the African region. The consultation seeks to:

  • Review, discuss and comment on the Guidelines Draft 1
  • Review the initial draft content in detail
  • Identify gaps that should be addressed
  • Agree on the priority areas/key components included in the Guidelines draft, or propose changes
  • Collect existing resources (guidelines, report, tools, etc.), promising practices and other relevant information from participants to support the content development of the Guidelines
  • Identify how regional humanitarian actors can contribute to later phases of the Guidelines development process, including establishing appropriate feedback mechanisms. 

The consultation began with an opening session and short remarks from Mr. Idriss Alzouma Maiga (Chairperson, ADF), Mr. Lamin Manneh, (UNDP Regional Service Center for Africa Director) and Mr. Gopal Mitra (IASC Task Team co-chair). The speakers reflected on the situation of and barriers faced by the near-10 million persons with disabilities worldwide affected by situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies. They noted the political commitment of all governments, under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to address the systematic exclusion and discrimination of persons with disabilities in order to leave no-one behind.

The Guidelines will assist humanitarian actors, governments, affected communities and organizations of persons with disabilities to coordinate, plan, implement, monitor and evaluate essential actions that foster the effectiveness, appropriateness and efficiency of humanitarian action, resulting in the full and effective participation and inclusion of persons with disabilities and changing practice across all sectors and in all phases of humanitarian action.

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