Promoting Rights and Opportunities for People with Disabilities - Equality through Legislation

The need for the review, strengthening and implementation of an employment policy framework is put forward in the Botswana Decent Work Country Programme (2011-2016) under Priority I on employment creation. As the existing employment framework in Botswana does not make provision for the rights of persons with disabilities, the project will contribute to the review process by supporting the inclusion of the employment rights of persons with disabilities in the new employment policy framework. As reflected in the developments described above, there is evidence of positive political commitment to addressing the rights of persons with disabilities. However the capacity to turn this commitment into practice appears to be low: the human resource capacity of the newly established ODP is low, with only one employed coordinator; there is an apparent lack of knowledge on disability rights issues at relevant ministries and the disability movement seems too weak to effectively advocate for their rights. To support the recent positive developments in acknowledging the rights of people with disabilities the proposed project will focus on support for the development of a disability inclusive employment framework. The project will also provide support for an enhanced capacity to collect disability data, in particular in gathering of statistics on the labour market situation of persons with disabilities. The work to be undertaken in Botswana builds on the experience from the previous phases of the ILO Irish Aid Partnership Programme (ILO/IA PP) and in particular on the project on “Promoting the Employability and Employment of Persons with Disabilities through Effective Legislation” (PEPDEL). Guidelines developed and support provided to other countries in the revision of the legal and policy frameworks will be used for the benefit of Botswana. The project will make use of the Global Product on Disability Inclusion through the use of the tools developed, through capacity building conducted in collaboration with the ILO International Training Centre in Turin, the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at the University of Western Cape, and the ILO’s Statistics Department.

Project symbol

BOT/12/50/IRL

Admin unit

DWT/CO-Pretoria

Start date

14/05/2012

End date

31/12/2013

Total allocation

84235

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

84235

Development Partners

Ireland, Irish Aid

Country/Countries

Botswana

Outcomes

Employment Promotion