Women Integrated Development Organization (WIDO), a Non-governmental Organization, has advanced the need for government to make conscious efforts to ensure the marginalized group in society, including Persons with Disability (PWDs), benefit from government policies and interventions.
It said the marginalized groups in society had, mostly, been excluded in government policies and interventions which had been a concern to the organization.
Mr. David Bagonluri Paapa, the Executive Director for WIDO, said this at a meeting with stakeholders in the region to present a policy brief in respect of the COVID-19 intervention in the Upper West Region.
The organization, with funding from the Commonwealth Foundation, was implementing a project in the region to assess the level of participation of the ordinary Ghanaian in government’s Covid-19 recovery programmes in the country.
The project was titled: “Enhancing Citizens Participation for effective Covid-19 Response in the Upper West Region of Ghana”.
The project has so far engaged over 2,000 people in rural and urban communities in the region on their participation in the Covid-19 recovery programmes.
Mr Bagonluri indicated that their assessment revealed that the marginalized, especially PWDs did not get the required information on the Covid-19 recovery programmes, hence their limited participation in and benefits from those programmes.
It therefore suggested that government should liaise with the appropriate departments and agencies such as the National Commission for Civic Education and Social welfare to ensure that no citizen was left out in the information dissemination on important government policies.
“We recommend that government should work with relevant institutions like the NCCE, Community Development and Social Welfare who are always on the ground to assist in the information dissemination”, it said.
He explained that due to lack of access to information by the PWDs, they did not benefit from any of the COVID-19 interventions from government including the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme Business Support Scheme (CAPBuSS), and free electricity.
He indicated that, the WIDO is set to draw government’s attention to issues affecting PWDs in relation to the government’s programmes and policies implementation processes.
Madam Salamatu Nuhu, an Assistant Director at the Upper West Regional Coordiating Council, who represented the Regional Minister, applauded WIDO for taking the necessary step to draw government attention to the needs of PWDs.
“For us to have inclusiveness in our governance system, indeed we have to involve each and every citizen, where the vulnerable particularly, is important”, she said.
Comments