review the performance of the Patriotic Front Government on the implementation of its own commitment to improve the welfare of persons with Disabilities in line with 2018 International Day for the Disabled theme which was “Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality, which fits well with 2011 to 2016 and 2016 to 2021 Patriotic Front Manifesto.

Zambia must be reminded that Chapter 22 core Program 6 under social protection for Patriotic Front Party manifesto for 2011 to 2016 ,persons with disabilities institutional reforms was the promise of the PF Government to persons with Disabilities. The PF acknowledged that Disability and poverty are closely linked in a cycle of exclusion and marginalization and further said that exclusion from education leads to exclusion from labour markets and this in turn leads to greater poverty and dependency on others for income and support among persons with Disabilities.

The Party said under the MMD Government, persons with disabilities remained a rather invisible group in national development policies. Despite important advances at the international level, the situation for the vast majority of Zambians with disabilities remains bleak. The Southern Africa Federation for Persons with Disabilities (2008) estimated that 93% of persons with disabilities in Zambia are living below the poverty line of US $0.93 per day because they have limited access to education and training which reduces their opportunities to access the employment market.

A lack of understanding by the MMD Government of the gravity of the situation, mistaken beliefs as to where the problems lie and the assumption that charity and good will are the answers to the plight of persons with disabilities, are all factors that have conspired to hamper progress in this sector. In order to promote the role and welfare of persons with disabilities, the PF government says it shall:

1. Carry out a baseline study of persons with disabilities so as to determine the nature and prevalence of disabilities in Zambia;

2. Domesticate and implement the 2008 United Nations General Assembly Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (including the review of the Persons with Disabilities Act of 1996 in order to make it respond in a comprehensive manner to their special needs);

3. Introduce legislation in order to guarantee the right to free, appropriate disabled learners’ allowance at all rehabilitation centre without entry to provide skills training programmes so that persons with disabilities enter the labour market or be self-employed.

4. The PF Government shall introduce Disabled Persons fund in all Disabled resettlement centres and open national skills to persons with disabilities with free access to government health facilities; The Centre(CDDRLP) is happy that among 2011 to 2016 promises, the Patriotic Front undertook to domesticate the 2008 United Nations General Assembly Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as well as to carry out a comprehensive review of the Persons with Disabilities Act number 33 of 1996.

To that end, the Persons with Disabilities Act No.6 of 2012 was enacted on 24th July, 2012 whose objects are among other things to:

• Promote the participation of persons with disabilities with equal opportunities in the civil, political, economic, social and cultural spheres;

• Provide for mainstreaming of disability issues as an integral part of national policies and strategies of sustainable development;

• Incorporate a gender perspective in the promotion of the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities;

• Ensure accessibility by persons with disabilities to the physical, social, economic and cultural environment, and to health, education, information, communication and technology;

• Provide for the regulation and registration of institutions that provide services to persons with disabilities and organizations of, and for, persons with disabilities;

• Continue the existence of the National Trust Fund for Persons with Disabilities;

• Provide for the domestication of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol and other international instruments on persons with disabilities to which Zambia is party, in order to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities and to promote respect for their inherent dignity; and

• Repeal and replace the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1996. In order to protect and promote the rights of persons with disabilities in the next five years which is 2016 to 2021 the Patriotic Front Government Manifesto says it shall:

• Ensure that the education system is inclusive at all levels to enable persons with disabilities realise their full potential and effective participation in society;

• Continue to establish special schools for persons with disabilities to enable persons who by reason of their disability cannot be enrolled in inclusive educational facilities;

• Provide persons with disabilities access to some range, quality and standard of free or affordable health care and programmes as provided to other persons; • Progressively establish in every district, habilitation and rehabilitation centres for persons with disabilities.

• Prescribe safeguards to promote the rights of a person with disability to employment including the reservation of a prescribed percentage of positions in employment in the public and private sectors; • Prescribe safeguards to promote the right of persons with disabilities to social protection;

• Take effective measures to ensure accessibility by persons with disabilities to the physical environment, transportation, information and other facilities and services open to or provided to the public in both urban and rural areas;

• Take effective measures to ensure personal mobility with the greatest independence;

• Provide appropriate sports and recreational facilities;

In reviewing the performance of PF Government in the area of disability and in line with its commitment for the last seven (7) the Centre for Disability(CDDRLP) wish to note that while there was political will by PF Government with aligning of persons with disability Act with United Nation Convention on the right of the disabled, increased funding to Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities (ZAPD), payment to the agency retirees and those who were wrongly retired, enacting the first National Policy on disability, Government has failed to monitor implementation of its promises which are translated into policies resulting in persons with disabilities and their families losing trust in the PF Government as it has departed from its good intention and resort to MMD fire fight approach to disability administration.

The view of the Centre is that Government must appoint a technical committee in 2019 to reviews challenges institutions charged with the responsibility to implement the good vision of the PF in improving the welfare of persons with disabilities and ensure that centres of rehabilitation and habitations are established in every district as provided in the Party manifesto so that hope and trust in this Government can be restored for the remaining three (3) years. Rating Government performance against its commitment in the last seven (7) years we can conclude that only 10 percent has been implemented so far and if Government will not appoint independent technical committee persons with disabilities should not expect anything from this Government.

END For more information or interviews please contact us on Mobile Number (WhatsAPP Call only +260977434596 or Direct Call Washington Dc Office on 001-202-350-2496

By Professor Charles Mwape (PhD)

Disability Policy Analyst for Africa Centre for Disability Development Research Law and Policy (CDDRLP)