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

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

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

4. 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

5. 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

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

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

8. 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 .

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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.

13. Thank you!