Remarks at the inauguration of the National Advisory Council for Persons with Disabilities

On behalf of the United Nations Family in Eswatini, it is my great pleasure to join you today to witness and celebrate with you the inauguration of the National Advisory Council for Persons with Disabilities in the Kingdom of Eswatini.

Allow me from the outset to acknowledge and commend His Majesty’s Government for the important role it has played over the years, and continues to play today, in creating a conducive legislative framework that embraces the rights and issues of persons with disabilities in the country. These include the 2005 National Constitution; the ratification, in 2012, of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; the National Disability Policy of 2013; Persons with Disabilities Act of 2018 and the National Disability Plan of Action of 2018-2022.

I wish to particularly applaud you, Your Excellency the Deputy Prime Minister, for your passionate leadership of key areas that are central to the collaboration between the Government and the United Nations. Thus, your office is the home of the National Children’s Coordination Unit, the Gender Coordination Unit, and the Social Welfare Department, not to mention disaster preparedness and response.

In this way, your office and its dedicated team is leading in the advancement of the interests and rights of vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities. Indeed, Deputy Prime Minister, your office really is the home of #LeaveNoOneBehind, and we in the UN applaud you for the leadership and partnership.

On partnerships, allow me to acknowledge the ongoing collaboration between the GoE and the UN (UNICEF, UNFPA, UNESCO & WHO) who are implementing UN Partnership for Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD) programme for the period 2022-2024.

This Programme is supporting Government, Organisations of Persons with Disabilities and Civil Society Organizations in advancing the implementation of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (UNCRPD), through:

• Strengthening disability-inclusive accountability and governance;
• Advancement of equality and non-discrimination; and
• Ensuring UNCRPD-compliant budgeting and financial management approaches.

These partnerships continue to move us closer to our goal of #LNOB and remain critical in deepening progress and entrenching the rights of PWDs to participate fully and unhindered in everyday life.

Deputy Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen,

The National Advisory Council for Persons with Disabilities which is being inaugurated today is a major milestone towards the full operationalisation of the Persons with Disabilities Act of 2018. The Act itself and the Advisory Council are a major step in strengthening the implementation of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which the country ratified in 2012.

We have made tremendous progress, but much remains to be done, as data shows.

According to reports, 16% of the world's population, that is 1.3 billion people, have disabilities. In Eswatini, persons with disabilities are 13% of the population (146,554), with over 80% of them coming from rural areas. 51% have no formal qualifications. 85% are unemployed.

These figures are a stark reminder of the need to fully mainstream PWD issues in national processes as contributors to development rather than as beneficiaries. We must include PWD in all sectors of society: in policy making and policy implementation, in schools and centres of knowledge, in the workplace and other economic development programs including business start-ups, national budgeting processes, all funded programmes and others.

This morning I want to four key issues and messages.

The first point I would like to make is that we have a special duty of care to solutions to keeping persons with disabilities safe, dignified and supported at all times.

In his message on International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December 2022, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, called for transformative, innovative solutions, in a world confronted by crises which disproportionally affect persons with disabilities.

PWDs are vulnerable to poverty, abuse and neglect, among other social challenges. It is critical that they receive support to enable them to function optimally in society.

The participation of persons with disabilities in the Transforming Education Summit last year should serve as a platform for Eswatini to identify priorities for making our education system and indeed all other systems including our social, economic environmental systems, relevant and inclusive to all.

We are aware of the existing challenges affecting schools for children with disabilities and remain optimistic that they will be assisted to get back on track. This includes training educators how to teach learners with a disabilities.

On another sad note, according to the UNPRPD Situation Analysis, women and girls with disabilities are at a higher risk to fall victim to sexual exploitation and rape, due to their vulnerability, and possibly the perceived reduced chance that perpetrators will ever be successfully prosecuted.

It is within our means to overcome these challenges.

The second issue I would like to highlight is the opportunity we have to harness technology advancements for the benefit of people with disabilities.  In particular, we can do more to acquire and adopt affordable assistive technologies to improve the lives of PWDs, right from pre-school, school and after-school. Advancement is technologies mean that assistive technologies, particularly those involving learning and the school environment are no longer prohibitively expensive.

Such technologies can now be tailored to the specific type and level of disability and enable the user increased independence and dignity.  No doubt technology is a key pillar in His Majesty’s commendable vision of turning Eswatini into a developed country. Our #LNOB mantra suggests that we must ensure that our children and adults leaving with disabilities are mainstreamed in this vision.

A Third message is the urgent need to improve coordination of programmes for persons with disabilities. Government, civil society organizations and development partners as well as the organizations for persons with disabilities lack strong coordination mechanisms for issues related to disabilities.

A key finding of the Situational Analysis carried out by the United Nations Partnership for Persons with Disabilities programme already referred to earlier is that a clear coordination mechanism is needed within and between stakeholders.

It reveals that coordination tends to be ad hoc and is not well institutionalized. As a result, disability stakeholders are not adequately and effectively coordinated across the disability sector.

The situation requires that we come together better, stronger, in fit-for-purpose partnerships, align energies and resources to make the lives of PWDs better.

The establishment of the National Advisory Council for PWDs is welcome and is expected to strengthen the coordination of stakeholders.

As the UN Family, we reiterate our commitment to work closely with the new council to ensure that they have sufficient capacity to promote, empower and mainstream disability issues across all Government sectors and programmes, and at all levels (Regional and Tinkhundla).

In this regard, we support Government’s efforts to establish and operationalize an inter-ministerial committee to coordinate disabilities mainstreaming across the country.

We also support Government’s efforts to review and update the National Disability Plan of Action 2018-2022 which has since expired.

As international partners, we have initiated the International Development Partners Platform to help improve coherence of support in many areas and is expected to assist our coordinated support for programmes of PWDs as well.

The fourth and last point is about taking individual responsibility to lead by example in making the lives of PWDs better. On this one, I must again applaud you, Deputy Prime Minister, for your leadership by example.

Within the UN, the Secretary-General has made a commitment to transform the Organization to lead by example in protecting the rights of persons with disabilities through the implementation of the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy. This strategy is now our guide to make the UN accessible to persons with disabilities across the world, including in Eswatini. We, as the UN, are not there yet, but we will continue the effort to lead by example.

• The Situational Analysis conducted in 2021 as part of the UNPRPD Project returned mixed views regarding the accessibility of the United Nations premises here in Mbabane.

• Whilst some people feel that the premises are accessible because meeting rooms are on the ground floor and there are lifts, others feel the premises are not accessible for the visually impaired, because the lifts do not have Braille. There is also no digital or auditory signage.

• Some respondents also noted that our UN vehicles are not disability-friendly and that the UN does not offer sign language interpreters in meetings.

As the UN, we have made a commitment to fully implement the Disability Inclusion Strategy, which will address some of the issues highlighted in the report. I continue to encourage my UN colleagues to consider disability inclusion, especially in our hiring policies and criteria.

As I conclude, let me congratulate the members of the National Advisory Council who are being ushered in today to serve and promote the rights of our brothers, sisters and children with disabilities. As it has been argued by many scholars, including authors of the Holy Book, greatness and true satisfaction of living purposeful life is in serving others. A society can also be assessed by how it treats those in its midst that do not enjoy equal advantages.

I wish you joy and everyday satisfaction in your assignments of ensuring the mainstreaming of the interests and rights of people with disabilities across all sectors and levels including through mobilizing resources and advocating for a rightful share from the national budget.

Let the needs, welfare and rights of the 146,000 EmaSwati living with disabilities motivate and drive you every day.

I thank you.