Children with Disabilities: Looking Back to Look Forward Children dialogue series HSRC Video Conference 10 March 2014 Presented by: Manthipi Molamu

Outline of the Presentation Acknowledgements Purpose Understanding the Theme Opportunities for fulfilling the rights of children with disabilities Implementation & Progress Recommendations of the study

Acknowledgements UNICEF SA DSD, DoBE, DoH & DWCPD Service providers - DART DSD, DoBE & DoH Officials Facilitators, Parents, Care givers & Children with Disabilities

Purpose To share with you the findings of the study and the recommendations to address the findings To highlight the importance of duty bearers to promote, protect and fulfil the rights of children with disabilities To highlight the policy, service delivery and practice imperatives that will support & work towards creating a platform for integrated service delivery where children with disabilities receive high quality, responsive and supportive services

Understanding the Theme: ‘Looking back to look forward’ This presents an opportunity to critically examine and use our knowledge To critically examine what has happened in the past What we desire to improve the quality of life for children with disabilities

Opportunities for fulfilling the rights of children with disabilities Government policies Ongoing health sector reforms Rehabilitation Inclusive education Early Childhood Development Care Dependency grant

Opportunities for fulfilling the rights of children with disabilities cont… Maximising human resources Scalable projects Enhancing Data Collection Disability Mainstreaming Monitoring children’s voices

Recommendations How opportunities could be utilised: Strengthening of existing legislation Conditional grants from national to provincial government Aligning policies to the UNCRPD and National Policy framework developed by the DWCPD Creating a service delivery environment for service delivery partners .

Recommendations cont… Strategic Partnerships and co-ordination. Changing attitudes and providing community-based support Adopting a twin track approach in the delivery of services.

Progress Report & Implementation plan widely consulted Presented to the Social Cluster & Cabinet Committee of the Social Cluster and Community Development Development of the Protocol of commitment National Strategy towards integrated services to children with disabilities reviewed Implementation plan to be costed

Conclusion We look back, to remind ourselves of the commitment we made to improving the lives of children with disabilities to see our successes in some programmes and projects we implemented to see the gaps and challenges that still prevent us from achieving our vision of full inclusion to see and remind ourselves that the rights-based approach to providing services to children with disabilities remains the most appropriate paradigm, and we see that the road looking forward is still long and windy

Conclusion cont… Looking forward, We can see where we should focus our energies, how we should prioritise, where the opportunities exist and how we can maximise our utilisation of minimum resources Ladies & Gentlemen - Looking Back we can see, that if we achieved so much then, we can achieve even more Looking Forward.

Thank you!