Secretary of Women, Children and Social Welfare Madhu Prasad Regmi vice chairperson of AIN and country director of Handicap International Nepal Sarah Blin jointly launched AIN Inclusion Survey Report. Conducted by Reshma Shrestha, secretary Regmi, vice chair Sarah Blin and Dr. Khem Karki member secretary of Nepal Health Research Council jointly unveiled Disability Took Kits.

Organized by AIN Disability Working Group (AIN-DWG), Shaurabh Sharma AIN Disability Working Group Coordinator shares DWG achievement 2015 and Plan 2016.

Suraj Sigdel, AIN DWG Member, presented of findings of AIN Inclusion Survey. In his presentation, Sigdel pointed out the need to make INGOs more inclusive for Disability.

Sharing on disability related new policies and programs of  Nepal government Humkala Pandey, Under Secretary, Disability Rights Promotion Department, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, said that Nepal government has already announced several policies to protect the interest of persons with disability.

The reports of findings on Regional Employment Dialogue for Persons with Disability NFDN and Chitwan Association of Industries and Pokhara were also presented.

Addressing the program, secretary Regmi said that the government has been doing its best to protect the rights of person s with disability to make civil service and other organizations more inclusive.

The Association of International NGOs in Nepal (AIN), is an active network in the development sector of Nepal since 1996. 124 INGOs are the members of AIN who have been implementing various people-centered development programs throughout Nepal.

According to a press release of AIN, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been ratified by Nepal in 2011. The ‘World Report on Disability’ by the World Bank and the World Health Organization illustrates a disability prevalence rate of 15.4; however this figure could go up to 19 percent in developing countries (WDR 2011).

“Along with these two documents, there are various evidence of correlation between disability and poverty: people who have disabilities are more vulnerable to poverty and poor people are more at risk to acquire disabilities. It is therefore essential to include people with disabilities in all developmental endeavors, including DRR and Emergency Response,” said Shaurabh Sharma, AIN DWG coordinator.

AIN through the Disability Working Group (DWG) has initiated some fundamental steps in the areas of disability mainstreaming for last few years. Some AIN members exclusively work in the area of disability and development while others work with a broader inclusive approach, disability being addressed as cross-cutting issue. At DWG level, we have realized that AIN members yet would need to mainstream disability.

“Through various initiatives, AIN members and other organizations reformulate their approach towards disability inclusion in development actions, such as making accessible office structure, providing equal opportunities for persons with disabilities in their workforce, making affirmative planning and monitoring actions to see the disability inclusion in their development programs, however this is often not yet institutionalized,” said Sharma.

“Disability is a pertinent issue in all development efforts, including DRR and Emergency Response and we shall use twin track approach of 1) Disability specific: empower persons with disabilities, their families and representing organizations to access development services such as health-including WASH, education, livelihood, participate in social and political activities; and 2) Societal: mainstreaming disability– working together to identify and overcome the barriers in society that people with disabilities face e.g. physical accessibility, communication, attitude, legislation. It involves the inclusion of persons with disabilities into all aspects of life on equal basis as people without disabilities in order to improve their quality of life,” says AIN press release.

“We, the 22-membered DWG advocate to all our AIN members and development partners/ agencies to be a part our efforts of making inclusive society for all,” said Sharma .