Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD)

UNCRPD Monitoring & Reporting Training

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18 October, 2017

A two-day training workshop for SAFOD Affiliate Federations on Monitoring and Reporting of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) ended on 17 October 2017, held at Holiday Inn Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa.
 
The workshop is part of the “The Organisational Development in Southern Africa Project” funded by Norwegian Federation of Organisations of Disabled People (FFO). 
 
The training programme aimed at giving the much needed skills in parallel reporting and general monitoring of the implementation of the UNCRPD to participants. 
 
The specific objectives of the workshop were to familiarize the participants with the UN human rights treaty working systems and how this relates to the implementation of the UNCRPD; to analyze provisions on the setting up of national implementation mechanism for the UNCRPD and to compare it with the realities on the ground; to share and analyze how different countries were going about the ratification / implementation of the Convention; to sensitize the participants on the need to take interest in the process of preparation and to influence their Governments to be submitting State Party reports; to develop skills and information on the preparation of parallel reports on the UNCRPD; and to enhance networking and continuous sharing of information between persons with disabilities and their organizations on the CRPD implementation.
 
This workshop was for officers working on the ground within SAFOD's affiliate federations, to enable them to voluntarily integrate monitoring and reporting of the UNCRPD within their own day-to-day programs or activities. 
 
The training workshop focused on, among other things, the following topics: an overview of the UNCRPD and its contents; understanding the General Principles the UNCRPD; the Convention’s monitoring Processes/mechanisms; alternative/Shadow reporting Guidelines & Role of DPOs; and developing a model action plan.
 
The participants were also given an opportunity to make short presentations on the current status of the UNCRPD implementation and/or monitoring in their respective countries. The presentations were from the following countries: Lesotho, Malawi: Mozambique; Namibia; South Africa; Swaziland; Zambia; and Zimbabwe.
 
All the SAFOD affiliates present at the training workshop committed themselves to developing national plans of action in terms of how they would approach their participation in monitoring and reporting processes of the UNCRPD in their respective countries.