Chitipa Council nods to inclusion policy
Chitipa District Council has assured the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare that it will mainstream disability issues in district development plans.
The council’s director of planning and development Jossen Tembo said they will ensure that all programmes are disability inclusive.
He said this on Tuesday during a District Executive Committee Meeting that the ministry organised under Sparking Disability Inclusion in Rural Transformation Programme (Spark) project, which comes to an end this month.
Tembo said the gains the district made under the Spark project will continue to support persons with disabilities in the district.
He said: “The gains we have in Phase I of the project should be sustained and inclusion of persons with disabilities adhered to in all projects and programmes in the district.
“As we are formulating our village action plans and district development plan, we need to mainstream issues of disability in our documents.”
The ministry’s disability affairs officer Willard Muwawa said the project registered positive impact as most persons with disabilities were participating in the International Fund for Agriculture Development (Ifad)-funded projects.
“We have seen that there is a big impact on that one. But we appeal to Chitipa and other district councils to mainstream disability issues because many people with disabilities do not participate or benefit from other projects or programmes at the council,” he said.
The Spark project was implemented in four districts, namely Chitipa, Nkhata Bay, Kasungu and Thyolo, promoting disability inclusion in government programmes funded by Ifad projects such as Transforming Agriculture through Diversification and Entrepreneurship and Financial Access for Rural Markets, Smallholders and Enterprise and Programme for Rural Irrigation and Development.
