Rights in Action Good practices for inclusive local governance in West Africa

1. Rights in Action Good practices for inclusive local governance in West Africa Benin, Burkina, Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo Side event - 3th session COSP on CRPD, 1-3 September 2010 Speaker: Francesca PIATTA – Handicap International

2. The framework for implementation: DECISIPH is a regional program which addresses the issues of rights, equality, citizenship, solidarity, and inclusion of people with disabilities across six countries in West Africa: Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. The program, which started in 2008 for a period of five years, is being implemented by HI, in partnership with: • the Secretariat of the African Decade of People with Disabilities (SADPD); • national federations of DPOs; • national and local DPOs; • public institutions responsible for disability issues. The overall objective of DECISIPH is to increase the individual and collective capacities of DPOs in relation to their representativeness, their citizen participation, and their influence on national and local public policies and the strategies of development stakeholders.

3. Inclusive local governance A key part of the CRPD concerns the rights of people with disabilities and DPOs to be involved in governance and decision making processes at the local level. This right is enshrined in Article 29of the CRPD. "Local governance refers to the interactions between different stakeholders at the local level, from local authorities and representatives of civil society to the private sector. Efficient and effective local governance (good governance) is the result of a set of institutions, mechanisms and processes through which citizens and groups can express their interests and needs (including discriminated persons, such as persons with disabilities, women, minorities and people living with HIV / AIDS), communicate their differences, and exercise their rights and obligations at the local level ». (UNDP, 2007).

4. Rights in Actioninitiative The primary objective of the “Rights in Action” initiative is to promote practical, evidence-based recommendations on how to achieve inclusive local governance in West Africa, so that people with disabilities have an active role in shaping the local policies and services that impact directly on their lives. Underpinning this objective is the goal to promote effective implementation of the CRPD at all levels across West Africa. RIGHTS IN ACTION IS A CALL FOR ACTION! People with disabilities must be given the opportunity to engage in decision-making about the provision of public goods and services.

5. A participatory and multi-stakeholders approach The Rights in Action initiative promoted a participatory and multi-stakeholder approach involving different civil society organizations at all stages of the initiative: from the collection of good practices to the selection and analysis of case studies and formulation of recommendations. Regional Advisory Committee

6. Good practices & recommendations The “Rights in Action” initiative carried out field research in 7 countries. After these was documented in the form of 26 case studies to demonstrate examples of people with disabilities actively participating in local governance in West Africa. In particular, we were looking at HOW the good practices were achieved so we could propose practical recommendations for action by a range of different stakeholders on how to replicate or ‘scale up’ this good practices. Local authorities Disabled People’s Organizations Other development partners

7. Examples of inclusive local governance The result of this research was very positive. We found many different examples of inclusive local governance in West Africa. A lot of these were implemented with very limited resources. This means there is the strong possibility to replicate and scale up. For example:

8. Rights in Action report The publication and dissemination of the report represents the beginning of the advocacy phase of the Rights in Action initiative. This phase aims to: • promote the report recommendations; • to open the topic for discussion and debate across the region, and • to bring about social and political change on disability issues in West Africa. The report will be published in October 2010 and presented during an international conference on CRPD that will be held in Dakar on 9-10 November 2010.

9. Advocacy actions The report recommendations are designed to support the advocacy actions of different stakeholders at local, national, regional and international levels. • public presentation of the report recommendations and key concepts to stakeholders and decision makers; • launch of the report through publicmedia (journals, TV, radio, web) to reach a wide audience; • organizing seminars, workshops and conferences for different groups, including local authorities, service providers, development actors and other decision makers to train and educate on the subject; • the capacity building of existing advocacy and lobbying groups; • training DPOs in West Africa to undertake specific advocacy on local inclusive governance; • collaboration with other development and human rights organizations to disseminate the key messages of the “Rights in Action” initiative through their networks.

10. Thank you for your attention! For further information on this project, please contact: miw-decisiph@hi-sen.org