The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) has worked with Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) on disability-inclusive climate change policy review in Abia State.
The one-day workshop, held in Umuahia, the state capital in collaboration with Abia State Commission for the Welfare of the Disabled Persons, with support from the Disability Rights Fund, had participants drawn from different disability clusters in the state.
The Acting Director of CCD, Mr. Godwin Unumeri, said that the purpose of the workshop was to ensure that the perspectives on issues of PWDs were adequately captured in the โAbia State Climate Change Policyโ. He commended Abia State Government for the policy, while describing the state โas a pacesetter on issues of PWDs in every facet of life.โ
Unumeri said that the policy was at the draft stage, adding that the organisation would ensure that all the inputs by the stakeholders would be reflected in the final document.
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Unumeri said that CCD is an organisation that was founded to ensure that issues of PWDs and their families were brought into policies, programmes and activities across the country.
โPWDs are poorest of the poor and if you are developing a policy for a people who are largely not educated, you have to be very explicit,โ he said.
On his part, the chairman of the commission, Mr. David Anyaele, said that the commission was designed to support the welfare of PWDs in Abia. He noted that the commission was saddled with the responsibility of formulating policies and guidelines that would support disability mainstreaming in the activities of the state and non-state institutions.
Anyaele, who is also the Special Assistant to the Governor on Persons with Disabilities, said that the purpose of the workshop was to develop and review existing climate change policies to ensure inclusivity of PWDs.
โAll over the world, the climate is changing and the PWDs are particularly vulnerable to this incidence. โAs a commission, we will ensure that the state response around climate change are all-inclusive where issues of PWDs are factored in,โ Anyaele submitted.
He thanked CCD for choosing to bring the intervention to Abia and Gov. Alex Otti, for ensuring that issues concerning PWDs were mainstreamed in his administration.
Story was adapted from environews.
