Advocacy for CRPD in Plan Nepal’s Social Inclusion Programme Presentation for Civil Society CRPD Forum, 5 September 2012Silje Vold, Child Rights and Advocay Advisor, Plan Norway

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The Situation in Nepal

• Persons With Disabilities live in neglect and humiliation

• Data is limited and inconsistent• Most people with disabilities live in rural

areas, and about 1/3 are children. • About 50% of disabilities are caused by

disease and accidents, and armed conflict increases prevalence of disability

• Health is compromised due to lack of accessible sanitation and clean water sources.

• Access to health and education is limited, particularly due to physical and attitudinal barriers.

• Different types of discrimination intersect and overlap (gender, caste, ethnicity etc).

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Plan Nepal’s experience: Advocacy, programming and capacity building

• Social Inclusion and Non-Discrimination Project has been implemented for the past 10 years, with support from Plan Norway and funded by Norad.

• The overall aim is to contribute to the realisation of the rights of persons with disabilities.

• A key partner has been the National Federation of Disabled Nepal (NFDN).

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Three components:

• Advocacy - seeking to influence and hold the government to account at all levels

• Direct interventions to address violations of the rights of persons with disabilities (especially children).

• Capacity building – strengthening networks of Persons with Disabilities at local / village levels.

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Joint Advocacy on the CRPD

• Development of national level and district level action plans on disability for 32 districts

• Establishment of a CRPD monitoring plan - consultation sessions were organized to identify gaps in implementation.

• Disability Budget Auditing – holding Village Development Committees and District Development Committees accountable.

• Advocacy and support to the Central Bureau of Statistics to incorporate disability in the population census for 2011.

• Advocacy for a disability friendly constitution.• Disability caucus in parliament. • One key achievement has been a monthly

allowance for PWDs

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Capacity building and participation

• Establish, support and strengthening of networks of persons with disabilities at village and district levels, supporting them to be able to advocate for themselves.

• Local network advocate to local government to ensure laws and policies are being implemented.

• Encouraging children with disabilities to participate in child and youth clubs.

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Plan Nepal’s experience on child rights monitoring and reporting

• Plan Nepal supported NGO partners in CRC monitoring and reporting in 2004

• The organization has engaged in child rights advocacy at national and district levels.

• Children with disabilities are mentioned particularly in the CRC concluding observations on Nepal.

• The experiences in child rights monitoring, reporting and advocacy have given the organization a solid foundation for advocacy on the rights of persons with disabilities.

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Concluding remarks• Cooperating with Disabled Persons

Organizations and networks is key to the success of the project. Empowering representative groups has inherent value.

• Partnerships are mutually beneficial. There is a need to bring in child rights into the disability discussions, and disability rights into discussions about children.

• Focusing on holding duty bearers to account at all levels is essential – following CRPD ratification, advances are made in policy-making, but not necessarily in implementation at local level.

Thank you!