Common Fund allocation will no longer be accessible to every Person With Disability – new guidelines spells ou
When the 2022 revised guidelines for the management and disbursement of the District Assemblies Common Fund for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) kicks in, the fund will no longer be opened for access by every PWDs.
This is because the revised guidelines will streamline processes for accessing the fund and target only needy PWDs.
Speaking to Dreamz News at a sensitization programme in Bolgatanga, President of Society of the Physically Disabled, Mathew Annor Kodom noted that the 2010 guidelines, which is still in operation, makes the fund available to every PWDs regardless of their financial and educational background and thus, limiting support for the needy.
With the revised guidelines, however, PWDs who are economically stable or have attained higher education up to the university level will be excluded from accessible the fund.
This, Mr. Kodom stated, will make enough funds available so as to offer adequate support to the needy and improve their living conditions significantly as well as eliminate the phenomenon of begging among PWDs.
“The 2010 guidelines, even if you are a professor of Theology, a professor of law, you can still access it. It doesn’t matter how wealthy you were, as far as you are disabled, you can access it. But with the new one, once the Fund has taken care of you to the tertiary level, it can no longer cater for you. It means that, at that level, you are now well off and it means you are wealthy,” he stated.
The new guidelines, which is a revision of the existing 2010 guidelines, was undertaken by the National Council on Persons With Disability (NCPD) and the Ghana Federation of Disability Organization (GFD) in collaboration with relevant ministries and government agencies with technical assistance from Ghana Somubi Dwumadie, through funding support of UK Aid from the British People.
When implemented, it will expand coverage to include Persons with Mental Health Conditions and caregivers of persons with severe disabilities.
It will also ensure the inclusion of a female in the representatives for PWDs on the Fund Management Committee.
Leadership and Governance advocate at Ghana Somubi Dwumadie, Vivian Sarpomaa Fiscian said the revised document aligns with the UN Convention on PWDs and will address challenges encountered in the implementation of the existing one.
