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Inclusion Africa (IA) reinvigorated!
[Last updated Tuesday, May 26, 2009]
Story by James Mung’omba
For the past decade, at a global level, Africa as a region has always remained behind and or been under-represented as a member of Inclusion International and such challenges could be attributed to a number of factors such as Poverty, Disease, Poor communication, Language barrier, Political instability in many African countries, lack of resources to to enable full participation, lack of Inclusive constitution and or supportive policy documents etc and above all lack of a strong and representative regional body to handle issues on persons with Disabilities especially persons with Intellectual disabilities and much more.
In view of the above mentioned challenges, it is noted that Inclusion International, NFU and ANDD greatly assisted in the founding of self advocacy groups and oriented the target groups on UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, consequently seen one of the self advocates from Africa being a Board member of International Disability Alliance (IDA). Quincy Mwiya now a confirmed full Board member of IDA and has since attended one Board meeting that was held in Athens in March 2009.
The process of coming-up with a IA Constitution that would stand the test of time started nine years ago, immediately after Burkina Faso General Assembly in 2001. It was felt that African continent probably needed to be divided into two sub-regions namely English speaking people and French speaking people as a means of solving a language barrier. At that time the Constitution was only available in French which limited majority of English/Portuguese speaking people to contribute effectively on its constitutional matters and thus the need for amendments.
The first task, especially for members in English speaking countries was to have the document translated in English. Between 2003 and 2004 the document was successfully translated from French into English. The proposed sub-region for IAIO was Southern and Eastern Africa Regional Inclusive Network (SEARIN). However, the idea was later dropped
In 2004 at Kudochi Hotel during the Africa Network for Persons with Developmental Disabilities (ANDD) Annual Conference in Dar-es salaam, Tanzania, IAIO Constitution was again on top of the agenda. Professor Beda, the Chairperson of Tanzania Association for Mentally Handicapped (TAMH) and Mama Mariga of Zimbabwe and a NFU regional consultant for Africa who where part of the Burkina Faso meetings both gave an account of the Inclusion Africa and Indian Ocean (IAIO) General Assembly that was held in Burkina Faso in 2001. One of the resolutions of that meeting was to explore the possibilities of making amendments to the Constitution.
In the year 2005, the struggle to have a more democratic and widely spread representation continentally continued. During the ANDD Conference in Lusaka, it was resolved that a draft constitution be finalized and copies be sent to both Presidents of IAIO and II respectively ( must be noted that it is the time we lost IAIO President due to an illness).
Since then the debate had continued on every opportunity that brought associations of and for persons with Intellectual Disabilities in Africa together. In Zimbabwe in 2006 the issue was debated and in Namibia it was further debated and finalized. It was also during this meeting that witnessed the ushering in of new Board members of IAIO and the change of the name to “Inclusion Africa”
The Board of Directors of Inclusion Africa had its meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from April 25-26, 2009. The meeting was supported by the Secretariat of African Decade for persons with Disabilities. All Board members including Quincy and James, Rosalie from Burkina Faso (former Secretary General of Inclusion Africa and Indian Ocean were in attendance. The main purpose of the meeting was to develop a strategic plan of IA and to finalize the constitution which was accepted and adopted in principle during the meeting in Windhoek, Namibia, in October 2008.
The New Board has now developed a five-year strategic plan, operational plan and one year operational plan. It also finalized on the issue of the constitution.
On other matters, the Board discussed ways of equal representation on the Board. It discussed ways of bringing Francophone and Anglophone countries on board and an agreement was reached to make contact with some of these countries especially in West Africa where only one member was represented. It is the hope of the current Board that in the next IA meeting to have more representations many parts of Africa. Tentatively, the program is scheduled for September/October 2009 to be held in Zanzibar, soon after the forthcoming ANDD Annual Conference is concluded. The advantage is that all members of ANDD are also members of Inclusion Africa and subsequently members of Inclusion International.
It is during forthcoming IA meeting in Zanzibar that the Board will table the strategic plan to all member associations and establishment of working committees.
The self advocacy workshop was also held for Ethiopian Self Advocates under the hospices of ENAID shortly after concluding IA business. The three days workshop was facilitated by Quincy Mwiya and James Mung’omba.
Inclusion Afirca Secretariat
The secretariat for Inclusion Africa will finally be in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Association on Intellectual Disabilities (ENAID) offered IA one office for Secretariat. The President of IA thanked the association for its contribution that made it a modest beginning. Subsequently, on 27th April 2009 a day after the Board meeting, the office was commissioned by both The President and Quincy Mwiya who is both board member of Inclusion Africa and Inclusion International representing self advocates.
The Inclusion Africa secretariat has since sign up on internet for easy communication. The email address is inclusionafrica@gmail.com
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