Beneficiary Countries
Burkina Faso: Universal Access to healthcare
Bridging the Gap-II in Burkina Faso supports the harmonization of the National Strategy and the dissemination of the CRDP while focusing on the Promotion of Art 25 “[Access to] Health”, which is one of the most felt needs by persons with disability in the country.
Burkina Faso ratified the CRPD Convention in 2009 and reflected its commitment in the 2010 national Law n. 012. This Law introduced the so-called “Disability Card”, which entitles the holders to specific (health) services and benefits. The Card is a key document whose release is complex due to limited number of specialists who can certify the conditions of the applicant and to the lack of protocols. Awareness on the Card, as well as knowledge of the CRDP and of national/local norms, remains weak among health professional and persons with disabilities themselves.
The Project collaborate with the National Intersectoral Council for the Protection and Promotion of Persons with Disability (SP/COMUD/Handicap), with the Ministry of Health and with the local Federations of persons with disability and their families to:
- increase the awareness on the CRDP among development practitioners, to promote the mainstreaming of the Convention;
- to support the harmonization of the National Strategy for the Protection and Promotion of Persons with Disability with the National Development Plan and the Sustainable Development Goals to which the Country has committed;
- facilitate the accessibility to the disability card through the provision of tools and technical assistance and promote the awareness of CRDP among health professionals;
- enhance the services of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities to the larger community of persons with disability;
- strengthen the inclusion of persons with disabilities within the activities of the international cooperation community in Burkina Faso.
Ecuador: Inclusive education
In Ecuador, Bridging the Gap-II focuses on the right to inclusive education for Ecuadorian children with disabilities. Despite the enormous efforts made by the Ecuadorian Government since 2009, marking the opening of a Sub-secretariat for Inclusive and Specialized Education within the Ministry of Education, and the development and implementation of an Inclusive Education Model for the country, the gaps in the access to and the permanence in the education system for children with disabilities are still challenges that need to be addressed.
BtG-II’s action is developed in close cooperation with the Ecuadorian organizations of persons with disabilities with the aim of strengthening their capacity to influence and participate in the elaboration of the country's Education Policy, as well as promoting, through their working agreements with the Ministry of Education, the improvement of the coverage and of the quality of the education services in the country, so as to ensure the inclusion of children with disabilities and overcome existing gaps.
Likewise, the Action proposes to strengthen the efforts made by the National Council for the Equality of Persons with Disabilities (CONADIS), the government institution in charge of monitoring and supervising the mainstreaming of the rights of persons with disabilities in Ecuadorian public policies, so that this institution can influence and improve the efforts of the Ecuadorian public institutions to include people with disabilities in their actions, as well as promoting the creation of new inclusive tools for public policies.
Ethiopia: Livelihoods and social protection
The country action plan of the project in Ethiopia focuses on promoting disability inclusion in the livelihood sector, linking in particular to livelihood interventions that are aiming to improve resilience and those that are part of social protection programmes. The geographical scope of the project is the Amhara and the Somali National Regional States and the Federal level in Ethiopia. A specific emphasis will be put on ensuring inclusion of women with disabilities and young persons with disabilities.
In Ethiopia, BtG-II support the implementation of National Plan of Action of Persons with Disabilities (2012-2021) which aims at making Ethiopia an inclusive society and in particular its priority 1 on employment and work, priority 6 on social protection on access to social protection and poverty reduction programmes, priority 9 on full participation and increased capacity of women with disabilities, as well as priority 10 on self-representation through the organisations of persons with disabilities. The project is also aligned with the Ethiopian Growth and Transformation Plan II (2015/2016-2019/2020) and its cross-cutting objective to strengthen social welfare and security through expanding social security to persons with disabilities.
The action strategy is to work through already existing programmes to add value through providing support in making the programmes disability inclusive while, at the same time, increasing the potential of sustainability and multiplier effects. The programmes are namely the Government flagship programme on “Productive Safety Net Program” (PSNP), the “Water for Food Security, Women’s Empowerment and Environmental Protection” (SWEEP) programme implemented by CARE Ethiopia, the “RESilience building and creation of economic opportunities in Ethiopia” (RESET PLUS) implemented by the EU through a consortium of CSO actors and the “Support to livelihood of drought affected households and resilience building of vulnerable groups in the Somali region” implemented by UNDP, FAO and UNICEF.
Paraguay: Data generation and use in inclusive education
In Paraguay, BtG-II aims to enhancing the inclusion of people with disabilities via the reinforcement of the country's information systems and the use of disaggregated data. Bridging the Gap II will support the creation of indicators and measurable goals for the National Action Plan for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities 2015-2030 that will help with progress quantitative and qualitative assessment as part of a permanent monitoring process. Likewise, it will help with the evaluation of other plans and programmes, contributing to the creation of a culture of accountability where evaluation is the basis for learning, in a continuous cycle of knowledge generation.
Bridging the gap-II’s work will also be focused on the production of data related to the right to inclusive education together with the Ministry of Education and Science (MEC). A pilot action for reinforcing the country’s policy will be put in place, leveraging on the improvement of the IT systems in line with Axis 11 “Right to Education” of the National Action Plan and Article 24 of the Convention.
The National Secretariat for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (SENADIS) and the national organisations of persons with disabilities, both members of the National Commission for the Rights of Persons with disabilities (CONADIS), took the decision to support the use of meaningful, disaggregated datasets as fundamental tool in the design and application of public policy (Axis 2 of the National Action Plan and Article 31 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities).
Sudan: Universal Access to Employment
The action in Sudan focuses on enhancing the implementation of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) by strengthening social inclusion through promotion of equal access to employment, in line with CRPD’s art 27.
Sudan ratified the CRPD in 2009 and the legislative framework is quite aligned with its international standards: nevertheless, the gap to be bridged to full inclusion is still very wide. The unequal access to work is one of the main factors producing social marginalization of persons with disabilities, by denying their social inclusion.
The initiative is supported by the national institutions and it is in line with the Sudanese development strategy, and especially with the Disability Act which foresees support to the social inclusion of persons with disability. This will ensure the sustainability of the action to:
- Increase awareness and coordination of international partners concerning the mainstreaming of the disability approach in development cooperation.
- Enhance the capacity of the National Council of Persons with Disabilities and the Ministry of Welfare to collect disaggregated data, to increase awareness on infrastructure accessibility, as well as to develop inclusive social services and to promote the equal access to work of persons with disabilities in line with art 27 of the CRDP.
- Improve and strengthen the capacity to promote social inclusion of persons with disabilities and the engagement of national civil society organisations and organisations of persons with disabilities in policymaking processes.