National Summit on Sustainable Development Goals and Disability Organized
A mega-event titled “National summit on Sustainable Goals and Disability” was convened on 18th and 19th December, 2017 at Kathmandu to mark the 26th international day of person with disabilities. The 26th International day of persons with disabilities Celebration Main Organizing Committee, constituted in the leadership of Ministry of Women Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW) was the main organizer of the summit. National Federation of the Disabled Nepal (NFDN) and AIN-Disability Working Group coordinated for the whole management of the event. The event saw around 600 participants from Disabled People’s Organizations (DPOs), government authorities, development partner’s/UN agencies/international NGOs, NGO Federation and other civil society organizations, media persons, some international delegates and others.
First Day
The first day of the summit was divided into three sections. In the first section, the event was formally inaugurated by honorable Minister Bikram Bdr Thapa, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW) by lightening the lamps. As a chief guest of the event, He expressed thanks to all contributing stakeholders including NFDN and told that recommendations of this national summit would be contributing to the efforts of all stakeholders for the inclusion of disability issues in SGD. He further made strong commitment that ministry would do its best efforts to lead the process. “Now disability is not only the subject of medical science rather this is the agenda of development and human rights.
Similarly other guests and dignitaries presented their remarks on interlinkage between SDG and Disability. “Now disability is not only the subject of medical science rather this is the agenda of development and human rights. So, each Sustainable Development Goals are equally relevant for persons with disabilities and disability should be considered in each development work”, Mr. Shudarson Subedi, the national president of NFDN said in his speech.
Other guests from various authorities: Mr. Naindra Prasad Upadhyaya, the secretary of MoWCSW, Valarie Juliand, UN Residential Coordinator to Nepal, representative of Light for the World, Mr. Murali Padmanavam, Mr. Suraj Sigdel, country director of CBM and some other guests put their remarks and discussed about the initiation that their relevant organizations has been taking for the inclusion of disability issues in implementation of SDG. Mr. Raju Basnet, the secretary general of NFDN facilitated the session whereas vice-president of NFDN, Ms. Tika Dahal put the welcome remarks.
During the opening session, Autism-care Society Nepal also demonstrated a drama about autism and its identification and early intervention. In the run up to the first segment of the event, four different presentations were also presented focusing on the implementation of SDG in Nepal from various perspectives.
In the second section on the opening day, 4 differnt parrallel sessions were organized to discuss on various SDG goals that are directly related to disability. Different experts from various relevant organizations presented their paper in those sessions and collected the feedback from the participation of those summit.
The goals discussed during these parrallel sessions are: Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being, Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 5: Gender Equality, Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities, Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities and Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
The last section on the first day was concluding session. In this session all the participants met together once again and the leader of the technical team formed to prepare the final position paper, Mr. Kiran Wagle shared the structures of the position paper and major recommendations and findings came form different parallel session which are expected to be incorporated in the position paper. The participants could have an opportunity to provide their final feedback on the position paper. Mr. Murli Padmavam, the representative of Light for the World and member of the team put some remarks as the feedback for the position paper. Finally, Mr. Shudarson Subedi, the national president of NFDN urged all the concerned stakeholders to join hands in mainstreaming the issues of persons with disabilities and achieving the sustainable goals with synergy and joint collaboration
Second Day
In the first segment of the second day, Mr. Manish Prasai, the admin and program manager of NFDN made a comprehensive presentation on DPOs roles to accelerate the implementation of the SDG basically in municipality and provincial level of new national structures. He also proposed some key strategies that NFDN could play for the capacity building of DPOs and other stakeholders for the same. Giving the special attention in the local bodies: municipalities and rural municipalities, he emphasized on the influencing role of DPOs since they are the one to undertake crucial role in achieving SDG. He further urged to give particular attention to budget utilization and budget segregation for persons with disabilities in local level. Following the presentation, some participants put their queries and comments on the presentation as well.
In the second segment of the second day NFDN also discussed about its idea and framework of its own new structures. The DPOs provided mandate to NFDN to implement the position paper and new structure of NFDN.
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