Activity Post

TEERE WINS FRENCH SOLIDARITY GRANT TO BUILD AN EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT OF THE 3% OF THE DACF FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITY (PWDs) IN SELECTED DISTRICTS IN THE UPPER EAST REGION.

• August 22, 2017.
• Venue Accra, Ghana.

Ghana is one of the countries where people with disabilities have fallen through the cracks in the countries quest for development. PWDs cannot be considered as a minority anymore especially when the 2010 population census indicates there were 39,924 persons with disabilities in the Upper East Region alone. In any case, majority of the PWDs ought to equally be considered in the recent agitation for women empowerment since they make up a majority of 51% representing PWDs in the region. It is conspicuous that the hostilities of urban living have relegated a majority (85.2%) of all the population of PWDs to live rural areas denying them of some basic amenities and removing them from some crucial services. Persons with disability suffer from discrimination on account of their disability status. This situation has rendered most PWDs less productive and not capable of contributing to development compared to their able counterparts.

To mitigate these challenges, the 1992 constitution made provisions to cater for the economic, political and social inclusion of all PWDs across the country in the various district assemblies through the creation of the Disability Fund. The Disability Fund seeks to support income generating activities as a means of economic empowerment; provide educational support; build the capacity of OPWDs in the districts to enable them advocate and assert their rights and undertake awareness raising and sensitization on disability issues, and to support access to technical aids and other assistive devices and equipment. To ensure the effective implementation of this, in 2010, the National Council on Persons with Disabilities in collaboration with other stakeholders developed the guidelines on the disbursement and management of the DACF to Persons with Disabilities. The guidelines stipulated a separate account is opened purposely for the disability fund which is deducted at source (Common Fund Secretariat, Accra) and paid directly to the disability fund account at the various District Assemblies. The guideline also mandates a fund management committee be established.
This committee comprises of

• Social services subcommittee (Chairperson)
• District representative of the National Council of People with Disabilities.
• District Director of the Department of Social Welfare
• District Director of Ghana Federation of Disabilities
• Co-opted technical member

Despite these mechanisms to ensure transparency, the fund still faces the following challenges;

• Local districts have institutionalized the bad practice of persistently borrowing from the DACF allocation to PWDs for other projects that the fund is not appropriated for.
• Ineffective financial management structures to ensure accountability and transparency in the management of the fund because there are no established mechanisms in place in the Assemblies to check how the fund is being managed.
• Lack of knowledge on the Provisions of the guidelines for the disbursement and management of the DACF for PWDs or the exploitation of the gap or no proper enforcement and sanctions to defaulting District Assemblies.
• Poor mechanism for funds disbursement for example is that disbursements are made on the table to beneficiaries.
• Weak monitoring of funds utilization.
• Lack of advocacy skills among the leadership of PWDs to demand for accountability.

In response to these challenges, TEERE in partnsership with the Upper East Charter of the GFD sought funding from the French Embassy Under its Solidarity Fund to build an effective and efficient management of the 3% of the DACF for PWDs to promote the inclusion of PWD societies for sustainable development in some selected districts in the Upper East Region. These include; Garu-Tempane, Kassena-Nankana West, Talensi, Bongo, Bolgatanga, Nabdam and the Builsa South districts.
At the end of the project, TEERE, its partners and donor hopes to;

• Enhance the knowledge of the beneficiary PWD community on the provisions of the guidelines for disbursement and management of the District Assembly Common Fund for Persons with Disability.
• Strengthen transparency and accountability through effective monitoring systems.
• To ensure justice for all beneficiaries through transparent and well communicated criteria for the selection of Persons with Disabilities to benefit from the fund.
• Harness the 3% of DACF for the socio-economic development of PWDs especially the women as well as their representation on the DFMCs.

On 22nd of August 2018, TEERE was announced as one of the four winners of the French Solidarity Fund to implement the project over the period of one year. At the grants awarding ceremony, Dr. Jean-Luc Mure, Head of cooperation, French embassy indicated to TEERE that the French Embassy is always ready to support CSOs to help develop the country in areas of disability and hopes the projects impacts PWDs in the region. Prof Avea, the CEO of TEERE assured the French Embassy that TEERE is poised to effectively execute this project to yield the required results to impact the region and the country at large. With the CEO at the ceremony were the Programs Manager, Avea Atabasum Patience and the M&E Manager, Maxwell Banu.