The Ministry of Social Welfare has submitted Sierra Leone’s first Country Report on the Status of Implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Country submitted the Report to the Secretariat of the Committee on the Right of Persons with Disabilities, through the Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone in Geneva for necessary actions.
This was made public by the Director of Social Welfare, Francis Kabia, in an exclusive interview with this Medium on Wednesday 16th September 2020.
In his response to questions about what the report entails, Mr Kabia stated that it highlights both the progress and corresponding challenges in implementing the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Right of Persons with Disability.
He furthered that addressing issues affecting persons with disabilities is at the centre of the government’s Mid-Term National Development Plan (2019-2023) and a pivotal activity in the Ministry of Social Welfare’s Strategic Plan, and added that the decision to submit the first country report speaks volumes of the government’s unwavering commitment to ameliorating the lives of persons with disabilities.
The Director said the report will serve as a major document that explains in detail how well the government has performed in the area of providing Free Health Care, Free Quality Education, and a host of other facilities that persons with disabilities ought to enjoy to fulfill its commitment to seek the welfare of persons living with disability.
He called on the Union of Persons with Disabilities to treat the report as their Bible, because it leverages the need to demand more from government and also enable them to speak from a position of strength.
Director Kabia noted that there is need for the report to be popularized so as to ensure that Sierra Leoneans, especially persons with disabilities, know what their government was doing for them and what the government plan to do as well as the challenges to the plans of the government.
Director Kabia appealed for the media to speak to the report, which he said contains detail information on Persons with Disabilities.
He informed that for the past three years the United Nations had been calling for the setting up of a special agency for persons with disabilities so as to ensure that their issues are handled exclusively.
One of the challenges facing Persons with Disabilities, he went on, is that there is no comprehensive data on them.
“Low budgetary allocations is another major problem faced by PWDs,” he said, adding that there is need for government to increase its allocation to Persons with Disabilities.
By Bampia James Bundu and Finda Judith Ngaujah: Strategic Communications Unit, Ministry of Information and Communications.