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Regional Workshop on Comprehensive National Plan of Action
on Disability - Towards the Mid-point Review of the Biwako Millennium
Framework for Action towards an Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based
Society for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific (BMF) |
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Materials : Country
Submissions :Bangladesh - Country ReportBY 1) Vision:Q: What is your Government's vision in planning disability related laws, policies and plans? The vision of the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) for planning any law or policy (including those on disability) is a society of justice, peace and harmony where all Bangladeshi nationals irrespective of gender, religion, age, place of birth and ethnic origin, can equally enjoy a life of safety, dignity and prosperity. Q: What values & concepts do you think are important? (ex. equality, adherence to international instruments, BMF etc.,) Bangladesh may be an independent and sovereign country, but it is also part of the larger international community. As such all the values and concepts upheld during formulating the laws and policies of the land, including those on disability issues, are based on human rights and equality, and the international instruments. While formulating the laws and policies on disability issues in the past, the Standard Rules, World Program of Action, and the Agenda of the ESCAP Decade were recalled as and where required. Now that we are in the Biwako millennium decade, the BMF will naturally influence any laws and policies formulated in the near future. Q: Does your Government think that it is important to have both disability-specific & disability-inclusive laws, policies and plans (twin-track approach)? Yes, the Government of Bangladesh, in the area of disability, gives importance to a twin-track developmental approach. 2) Issues in application of twin track approachesQ: Please discuss your assessment of your country's specific advantages and disadvantages in applying twin-track approach. Please discuss any other relevant issues. This should be best described by a few examples. The national Disability Policy (1995), the Disability Welfare Act (2001) and the Administrative Order issued from the Office of the Prime Minister (2002) were all very much focused on and very specific (uni-track) to the Disability issues. However, the upcoming National Action Plan (which is in its final phases) is a comprehensive disability action plan, involving fourteen different Ministries & Departments of the Government. On the other hand, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) is a strategic direction for the overall comprehensive development of the country. This document, in its analysis on poverty has included a special chapter on Disability, acknowledging the interrelation of poverty and disability. Similarly, in its development targets and goals, including in some of the relevant matrices, disability issues have been addressed. Another example can be cited as the Primary Education Development Programs second Phase (PEDP-II), which has addressed the specific needs of children with disabilities in their enrollment in primary education. Bangladesh is still a fairly poor country taking a few strides towards becoming a better developing country. As such, most of the work of the Government in the Disability arena is still from a very charity and welfare approach. At such a crucial time, these two examples can show its keenness to gradually turn the approach towards a development and also a rights-based approach. It may be true that in similar countries, practices are far lagging behind what the policies have mandated. But the Government of Bangladesh now has a serious commitment to disability, and even though the steps may be very small, but it has started taking some serious steps for the overall development of persons with disabilities in the country. 3) Analysis, planning and programming from the disability perspectiveQ: How does your Government do situation analysis of persons with disabilities? How does your Government gather disability-aggregated data and socio-economic indicator? It is true that the Government does not yet have the required capacity and/or personnel to do a situation analysis of persons with disabilities. Nor does it have the means to gather information on any other socio-economic indicator. Fortunately, the Government also recognizes these limitations. So it is highly dependent on the NGOs. The National disability platform of NGOs (National Forum of Organizations Working with the Disabled, or in short, known as) – NFOWD has been playing a pivotal role in this regard for the last many years. Q: What is your Government's policy framework/structure for disability issues (constitution, laws, policies, plan of action)? Soon after the independence of the country in 1971, the Constitution was adopted in the national Parliament in 1972, which has since then formed the base of all subsequent policies and laws. Action plans are merely working plans to work out the policies. As a part of the international community, Bangladesh never shied away from adopting and/ or ratifying any international conventions, treaties and charters. These have also influenced many of the national policies that have been adopted over the years. 4) Participation and institutional arrangementsQ: Please describe how your Government includes participation of stakeholders (persons with disabilities, their families, disability professionals, development professionals, ministries and agencies, government officials at different levels, donors) The Government of Bangladesh (GOB), and the line Ministry in this regard – the Ministry of Social Welfare – work very closely with the national NGO platform (NFOWD). Most of the programs at the national level are organized jointly by the Ministry of Social Welfare, the Department of Social Services, the National Foundation for Development of the Disabled Persons (NFDDP) and NFOWD. All these different bodies ensure the active and meaningful participation of all the relevant stakeholders including persons with disabilities. 5) Resources mobilizationQ: How does your Government finance the implementation, monitoring/ evaluation of policies, laws and plans? In general practice, most of these become integrated in the national annual budgets, and could be financed by different relevant sectors. In many cases, they also come as “add on” budgets, supported by different donors. In the disability arena, the government has not yet taken any large initiative to review its implementation, monitoring and/or evaluation of either the national policy or legislation as yet. However, in 1999 the government and NFOWD had jointly taken an initiative to review the national progress as against the targets set forth in the ESCAP Decade. This was then repeated in 2002, as an end-decade review. On both the occasions The GOB and NFOWD raised the required funds from an INGO (ActionAid) working in the country. Q: How does your Government obtain ideas and knowledge & technology, necessary for the planning, implementation & monitoring/evaluation of policies, laws and plans? As mentioned earlier, the GOB works hand in hand with the NGOs in the disability (and also most other development) arena. GOB has also started to send strong and committed teams to different international forums for a more meaningful participation. These combined together have strengthened its knowledge and understanding, and thus also contributed to its increased commitment in this field. Bangladesh as a nation is also making great strides in the field of information and communication technology, which has also opened the door to advanced and updated ideas and techniques used in different countries. Q: How does your Government/ministry obtain political support for the planning, implementation and monitoring/evaluation of policies, laws and plans? Bangladesh is a democratic country, currently being governed by a coalition government that came into power through peaceful national parliamentary elections in 2001. While all the political parties declare themselves as ‘pro-people’, unfortunately, only one of the four major parties had declared “Disability” as one of their key development agenda during the last elections. Fortunately, that party, as part of the coalition, is running the government. As such, it could be clearly mentioned that the government has the political commitment and support. The other majority party in the coalition had also ruled the country in a previous term. They had (during that term) declared the National Disability Policy in the year of 1995. The current main opposition political party was in power during 1996-2001. During their tenure, they had enacted the Disability Welfare Act. It was also during this time that the Government of Bangladesh had proposed the SAARC Disability Fund and the SAARC Summit. This goes to show that, the government of Bangladesh (even during the last few preceding tenures) has had the strong political commitment and support for the disability movement. Q: How does your Government mobilize necessary material & human resources? This is done jointly with relevant donors and NGOs. 6) Setting timeframes, and issues in implementation managementQ: What is your timeframe for the planning, implementation and monitoring/ evaluation of policies, laws and plans? Please discuss any other management issues. When policies and plans are developed against any specific projects, the implementation and monitoring activities are in-built in the project process. When these are developed in accordance with any longer-term national and/or international charter/declaration (e.g. a decade or a global framework), mid-term reviews and end-term reviews are part of the in-built processes. However, the country is yet to develop any process for monitoring of the laws – especially in the area of disability. 7) Monitoring and evaluationQ: What is your Government's system for monitoring and evaluation of policies, laws and plans? This has partly been mentioned above. In the disability field, in the past in 1999 and then in 2002, The Ministry of Social Welfare formed a working group comprising of members from the National Foundation for Development of the Disabled Persons (NFDDP), the Department of Social Services and NFOWD and a TOR was developed to evaluate the progress of the Nation as against the targets of the ESCAP Decade. 8) Reporting and public informationQ: How does your Government report on the monitoring and the evaluation? Reports that have been published in the past have all been made public through formal open-to-all launching ceremonies. The national media (both electronic and print) is also invited and used for the dissemination. Copies are circulated to all major relevant stakeholders. An example (apart from the disability field also) can be given in the publication of the Government report on its achievements against the targets of the Millennium Development Goals. The report is also available on various websites of the government of Bangladesh. The ESCAP decade review reports were presented at the ESCAP meetings by the Secretary and the Minister of the Ministry of Social Welfare respectively in 1999 and 2002. Q: How does your Government raise awareness on disability-sensitive society? With about 40,000 NGOs working across the country, Bangladesh could be seen as a fair playground of NGOs, sharing the development work of the country and its poor people, alongside the Government. Almost 400 of these NGOs work in the area of disability. Over the years, the Government has been working hand-in-hand with these NGOs and the media to raise awareness and sensitization across the country in the area of Disability. For the last few years, the Ministry of Social Welfare, the Department of Social Services, the National Foundation for Development of the Disabled Persons (NFDDP) and NFOWD have jointly been organizing national events also in this regard. Both electronic and print media, including the State-run television network gives huge coverage to any event, large or even small, on disability issues. These collectively are making large contributions to raise awareness and sensitization on Disability. |
