#NoOneLeftBehind: Empowering Persons with Disabilities to Promote Inclusion, Awareness and Access in Trinidad and Tobago (Empowerment. Inclusion. Awareness)

Start DateOngoingEnd Date

27 Feb 202131 Dec 2023

Programme Status

Open

Programme Budget

US$ 400,000

Financial Information

Thematic focus: Access to Health, Awareness Raising, Inclusive SDGs Planning and Monitoring, National development planning and monitoring, OPDs capacity building, Statistics and Data Collection

Implementing Partners

UN Agencies

PAHO/WHO
UNFPA

Government Organizations

Ministry of Social Development and Family Services
Ministry of Health
Ministry of Planning and Development
Office of the Prime Minister, Gender and Child Affairs
Central Statistical Office
Ministry of Education
Tobago House of Assembly
Office of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs

Organizations of Persons with Disabilities

Combined Disabilities of Trinidad & Tobago (CDTT)
Trinidad and Tobago Chapter of Disabled Peoples International
Consortium of Disability Organizations
Trinidad and Tobago Association for Retarded Children
Trinidad and Tobago Blind Welfare Association
Tobago Region of the Trinidad and Tobago Chapter of Disabled Peoples’ International
Tobago Affairs Committee for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Parents Advocating for Children with Disabilities

The Programme

A participatory situational analysis identified the lack of consistent data collection and lack of inclusion of disability considerations in legislative processes as being major obstacles to the advancement of the CRPD and disability inclusive SGDs. Disability support services, in particular rehabilitation and assistive technologies extending to the community level were also noted to be lacking or fragmented. Structural barriers such as inaccessible information and buildings and social barriers such as stereotyping and discrimination also remained highly prevalent. There is no OPD specifically representing women with disabilities and many underrepresented groups of people with disabilities are either invisible or largely represented by non-disabled persons.

Approach

The proposed intervention will focus on strengthening mechanisms for the effective participation and inclusion of PWDs through:

Improved mechanism for the inclusion of PWDs to enable their active participation in legislation development and amendment processes by the establishment of a legislative review panel and the development of guidelines and a checklist.

Standardised methodology for collecting reliable disability data across sectors.

Improved access to rehabilitation and assistive technology programmes by evaluating the existing system and developing a national plan aimed at improving access at the community level.

Improved disability mainstreaming within the UN’s collective response to the SDGs through the MSDF 2022-2023 Trinidad and Tobago country implementation plan.

A multi-tiered systems approach will be taken by building the capacity of PWDs and OPDs who will then actively guide the system changes and reforms indicated. Since the issues being addressed are influenced by different actors/stakeholders, building capacity at the Government and the UN level will also be done. There will be a particular focus and emphasis across all outcomes on women and underrepresented groups. By focusing on the preconditions and developing mechanisms for change, the project aims to build long term sustainability beyond 2023.