Fast-tracking African and national disability policies adoption and enforcement as an enabler of disability inclusion

Blogger: Kudzai Mwapaura

The organizations representing people with disabilities (PWDs) have urged the government of Zimbabwe to swiftly enact a legal framework to fast-track the implementation of the national disability policy (NDP). The Director of the Federation of Disabled Persons in Zimbabwe (FODPZ) noted that while they have NDP, they still need a legal framework to operationalise the policy.

In 2021, President Emmerson Mnangagwa (President of Zimbabwe) launched the NDP aimed at addressing the marginalisation and discrimination experienced by PWDs. However, the implementation of the NDP is being hampered by lack of a legal framework.

The National Director of Disability Affairs in the Ministry of Public Service said government of Zimbabwe was in the process of coming up with a PWD Bill. A new PWD Act is expected to be aligned to the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the AU Protocol on Disability and the UNCRPD which Zimbabwe ratified in 2013. Zimbawe, as well as 45 other countries have not ratified the AU Protocol and which is worrying.

AU protocol

By October 2023, only 11 countries had ratified the protocol, see list here. Five (5) more countries are required for the protocol to come into force. Countries that ratified by September 2023 were:

1. Angola
2. Burundi
3. Cameroon
4. Kenya
5. Mali
6. Mozambique
7. Namibia
8. Niger
9. Rwanda
10. South Africa
11. Nigeria (signed in October 2023)

Throughout Africa, the work of social and development workers is to advocate their governments to ratify this important protocol. Another important role is to do research on the protocol at all levels – honors research, masters research, doctoral research, academics research, institutes research, government research and organsiations research. Yet another role is to have the Protocol in the syllabus at all levels of education and training.