1. OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO SOCIAL INCLUSION FOR WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES.
Jacques Chirac Awa, Pius Tih Muffih, Lynn Cockburn
Ezekiel Benuh, Kenchi Joseph, Clodine Mbuli Shei, Glory Tsangue Agho, Lilian Lem Atanga, Wirba Asan Litinyuy,
2nd CBR World Congress
Berjaya Times Square Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
September 29th 2016, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2. Cameroon: Context at a glance
Located in central Africa with estimated 20,000,000 inhabitants (Nat.Stat, 2013).
Disability prevalence of 5.4% (DHS IV, 2011) with a valued male population of 43 % against 57 % of female.
58.1% (51.4 % male; 48.6 % female)of PWDs are in formal employment (DHS IV, 2011).
68.8% male with disability against 48.2% female are literate (Oyono. 2014)
Signed the CRPD and enacted N°2010/002 of April 13, 2010 on the Protection and Promotion of persons with disabilities.
Ministry of Women Empowerment and the Family has mandate to promote the rights of Women and girls.
Disability is not considered a cross cutting elements of governments work but rather the central responsibility of the Ministry of Social Affairs with a customary low budget which is reflective of the little value government attaches on disability inclusion. This has propagated the exclusion of PWD from mainstream government engagements –ipso facto civil society.
The effect of this exclusion is felt more by women with disabilities who are doubly disadvantage and who account for 57% as opposed to 43% males of an estimated regional prevalence of 6.9% according to Cockburn et el (2011).
The ministry has regional delegations led by Regional Delegates who report to the Minister of MINPROF.
This paper sets out to share lessons learnt from public-private partnerships engaged with 19 municipal councils in implementing disability inclusive development in the Northwest region of Cameroon. It demonstrates the degree to which CBR and DID principles can be used to support councils implement sustainable inclusive development

3. The Northwest Region: Context at a glance
Northwest Region has an estimated 2,000,000 inhabitants (Nat. Stats, 2013).
Disability prevalence estimated at 10.2% (Mactaggart et al, 2014)
Region has over 9 key organization with mandate to empower women.
SEEPD Program focuses on the medical, education, livelihood, social and empowerment components of the CBR guideline.
Large disparities in access to services by men and women with disabilities prompted the creation of a full component on gender.
Enacted law N° 2004/017 of 22 July 2004 on decentralization.
These Components are supported by a research component. Program also provides services in child protection and gender.
Thus there are 7 divisional delegations of MINPROF led by Divisional Delegates who report to the regional delegate and
The Socio-Economic Empowerment of People with Disabilities (SEEPD) Program is a large community development project supported by CBM Australia. SEEPD has been learning about and refining its approach for a number of years now. Starting with active involvement of government department in the management of the program to build further on that by creating a strong nexus between her CBR project and regional government departments. Today, seven years later, the project is building on the above link to deliberately trigger interest and create momentum for other development actors to be more responsive and active in addressing disability inclusion. The CBR workers and leaders of Self Help Groups are key to making this happen
Networking and collaboration amongst implementing partners as well as direct beneficiaries and government services is the basis for success of the program and is therefore given priority attention.
In 2014, retrospective review was done on data collected over 5 years on the key areas of program intervention –Medical, education, livelihood, empowerment, and social. It revealed that even though prevalence of disability is higher among women than men, fewer women with disabilities compared to men with disabilities benefited from livelihood and empowerment opportunities created by the program. This revealed the need for increased involvement of women with disabilities in the implementation of program activities and in the mainstream intervention done by government and other actors. Planning for the next phase of the program (2015 – 2018) created a full component on gender.

4. Focus
This paper shows how CBR contributes to the empowerment and social inclusion of WGWD by using government as a leverage to mainstream disability in the mandate of CSO with focus to empower women in general.

5. Approach
Consultative meeting with SHG of WGWD were held to determine their current levels of involvement in government led empowerment initiatives.
Second consultative meeting was held with officials of the Regional Delegation of Women Empowerment and the Family.
Third consultative meeting was organized for leaders of SHG of WGWD, government and CBR staff to adopt a working strategy and draft a MoU.
(MoU) between SEEPD and the Regional Delegation was formalized.
Meeting was intended to assess the current level of involvement of WGWD in the actions of the regional delegation and determine how involve WGWD would like to be and what empowerment meant to them. This approach was inspired by the program current mandate –shifting from direct service provision to influencing and supporting mainstream actors to adopt a disability inclusive approach to development.
The primary message was that it is the government’s responsibility to address disability issues as an integral part of her development objectives, and that the program is there to help support government in meeting her objectives.
3rd consultative meetings which brought together leaders of female self-help groups, CBR leadership and program staff were held to determine a working strategy
The focus of the partnership was to provide the Regional Delegation with relevant skills to implement DID and use her influential role to influence other mainstream actors. The MoU stressed the use of CBR to facilitate inclusion.

6. Methodology
A 4 days Training of Trainers workshop on CBR, gender and DID was organized for staff of the regional delegation of women empowerment and the family.
Disability was mainstreamed into the annual strategic plan of the regional delegation and a costed plan for rolling out of training on CBR, gender and DID was developed and funded by the program.
A directory on CBR workers was compiled and shared with workshop participants to ease networking and collaboration.
3 days workshop on gender and disability mainstreaming was organized to equip 14 CBR workers with skills to support mainstream development actors include women with disabilities in their interventions.
Tools were developed to facilitate disability sex disaggregated data collection and reporting by the regional delegation.
Trained CBR workers accompanied divisional delegates in planning, implementation, reporting and follow up on activities.
At the end the year, performance appraisals were done for all seven divisional delegations.
The trained divisional delegates were assigned the role of disability focal persons with responsibility to ensure all women with disabilities in their divisions are included in mainstream empowerment initiatives.

7. Areas of Intervention
Mainstream development programs increasingly considered WWDs in their actions.
7 workshops were organized on gender and disability mainstreaming for 16 staff of 8 organizations and 146 leaders of 70 women groups.
6 organizations formalized MoU this the regional delegation for the mainstreaming of disabilities in their mandate.
Tools were developed in order to facilitate reporting by mainstream organizations.
Each workshop ends with action plans drawn by organizations to facilitate mainstreaming into their mandate.
Leaders of Civil Society Organizations after workshop on theme: “Mainstreaming Disability in gender policies for increased participation of W&GWD”

8. Northwest Association of Women with Disabilities in a Planning Meeting
2. Number of WWDs actively participating in social activities increased
4 edition of radio series produced and broadcasted to positively portray WGWD.
3 meetings were held with 197 W&GWD to volunteer in the rehabilitation of other PWDs in communities and in other mainstream community activities.
18 girls and 182 W&GWD were trained to conceive and manage Income Generating Activities (IGA).
2 associations of women with disabilities benefited from government subventions provided to women groups.
14 DPO leaders were sensitized on the importance of involving and encouraging the participation of W&GWD in group activities.
Campaigns on safe usage of motorbikes focused on reducing the prevalence of physical impairments resulting from motorbike accidents.
Northwest Association of Women with Disabilities in a Planning Meeting

9. 3. The number of women with disabilities involved in women empowerment initiatives increased.
44 W&GWDs participated in 2 workshops on leadership and political participation organized by mainstream organizations.
28 W&GWD participated in 2 workshops on the fights against gender based violence.
5 leaders of self-help groups of W&GWDs participated in regional planning meetings for the celebration of International Day of the Woman and Day of the African Child.
1 workshop organized on HIV/AIDs for 36 W&GWDs.
Leaders of Women Common Initiative Groups participating in capacity building workshop on the theme “ Mainstreaming Gender and disability in the fight Against Poverty”

10. More women with disabilities benefit from livelihood initiatives.
Linkages were created with 14 community vocational training centres to provide capacity on inclusive approaches to vocational training.
Trainings on loan management, business management, hygiene, assertiveness and sanitation provided to 186 W&GWDs and micro credits disbursed to 152.

11. Results
The participation of W&GWD in mainstream activities changed perceptions by local authorities and mainstream development actors and led to increased involvement. Examples:
The Women’s Health Program now produces awareness campaigns in accessible formats and provides free/subsidized cervical cancer screening for W&GWD in the Northwest region.
The Northwest Association of Women with Disabilities now collaborates with the American Peace Corps following the former’s production of radio series on the inclusion of W&GWD in community development.
A growing number of WWDs now participate in mainstream livelihood activities with 28 WWD enrolled in mainstream vocational training centres and 32 enrolled in women empowerment centres.
2 councils formulated policies in favor of universal access into the build-up area
5 councils made structural modification into their council halls to improve on access into built-up areas.
“I would advise young women who do not want to continue with formal education it is better to learn a trade. This is one of the best options” (Community apprenticeship graduate with her own small business)

12. Challenges
The Program’s mental furniture can be in discordance with actual expectations. The regional delegation found SEEPD accountability measures challenging. Expenditure receipts rarely met program standards. Thus putting the program at a compromising position in the event of audits.
Weak programmatic skills among staff of the regional delegation mandated SEEPD to closely accompany the regional delegation in formalizing MoUs and working with other mainstream actors.
The program team has seen an exponential demand for support and advice to local councils in developing inclusive municipal plans. The transition from advocacy to an advisory role of the project team is unchartered territory and the management of staff time, resources, and implementation of other program components needs to be considered and planned for within this exciting environment of change.

13. Lessons learned
The inclusion of WWDs in mainstream activities can be facilitated by empowering and using government’s authoritative position to influence other mainstream actors whose interventions are supervised and moderated by government.
Financial empowerment of women with disabilities can facilitate their involvement in mainstream socio-cultural activities.
“To be involved in community development you need to be financially fit, it gives you a sense of self-worth.” (President, Solidarity APWD)
This can work well when government receives the required financial support and can lead to increased ownership of programs by government. In our experience, the Regional Delegate was enthusiastic in influencing the actions of other mainstream actors in favor of WWDs.

14. Conclusion
Empowering government to implement DID in collaboration with CBR is an invaluable strategy for achieving SDG number 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 11 and 16. This however requires initial funding and technical support which reduces with time for out of practice comes custom.
Government if given the required capacity and support will effectively lead the process of attaining the goals of the empowerment, livelihood, social components of the CBR guidelines and drive through the social change required for our societies to become disability inclusive.