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Community Development and Social Services Minister, Doreen Mwamba, has assured the United Nations (UN) of Zambia’s commitment to advancing rights of persons with disabilities.
This assurance was made at the General Debate when Mwamba delivered Zambia’s National Statement at the ongoing 16th Session of the Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Saturday.
“The Zambian government is committed to the advancement of rights of persons with disabilities through the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD),” Mwamba said.
Government, she said, seeks to enable communities, systems, and structures to combat discrimination and promote effective participation of all persons with disabilities.
Read more: Zambia committed to poverty reduction initiatives —Minister Mwamba assures UN
She stated that the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities was critical for progressive implementation and delivery of policies, laws and administrative measures that guide governments’ decisions towards an economic, sustainable, and inclusive development agenda.
Mwamba also said the government had embarked on economic empowerment and entrepreneurship by decentralising administration of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) down to the community level to benefit youths, women, and persons with disabilities through cooperatives.
“The government with support from development partners has partnered with the Zambia Federation of Employers to create employment opportunities for persons with disabilities in the labour market, in addition to the 10 percent quota system on employment in the government,” she said.
“Despite the strides made so far, Zambia continues to grapple with provision of affordable, assistive technologies that were critical to the effective inclusion and full participation of persons with disabilities,” she said.
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