Ms. Otiko Djaba
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MOGCSP) is to review the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme to benefit persons with conditional illness.
They include persons with autism, fistula, sickle cell, hole in heart, HIV, the mentally ill and persons with special cases.
Disclosing the development at a media briefing in Accra, Otiko Afisa Djaba, Minister, MOGCSP, said currently a total of 89,459 Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) have been registered as beneficiaries in all 216 districts.
Ms. Djaba said these beneficiaries, together with others across the country, would receive their bi-monthly allowance from July 30 to August 4.
Briefing the media on the 10th session of the Conference of State Parties (COSP) to the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons With Disability, held at the UN headquarters in New York in June this year, the minister said the deliberations emphasised the need for governments to develop disability-friendly disaster management plans that have inputs from Disabled Persons and Organisations (DPOs) and PWDs, and include them in its implementation and humanitarian action.
She noted that governments were further urged to use available opportunities to promote inclusive urban development that ensures that the built-environment, information and services are accessible to everybody especially PWDs.
Ghana, she said, had already developed accessibility standards to ensure that the various sectors of the economy were abreast of the demands of meeting the needs of PWDs.
Ms. Djaba assured that government was working to facilitate the ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty, which ensures access to published works for blind persons and visually impaired, adding that her outfit was currently in discussions with the Ghana Blind Union and other institutions to actualise the plan.
Mr Yaw Ofori-Debrah, President, Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD), who was part of the Ghanaian delegation, said the conference highlighted some measures to be pursued in ensuring participation of PWDs and their representative organisations in the implementation of the convention.
He expressed confidence in the government’s agenda to the effective participation of PWDs in society.
By Claude Nyarko Adams
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