Workshop on preparing an action plan to implement government’s commitment in GDS held

A national workshop on ‘Preparing an Action Plan to implement the commitments made by the Government of Bangladesh in the Global Disability Summit 2022’ was held at JPUF Auditorium in the capital on Monday.

Jatiya Protibandhi Unnayan Foundation (JPUF), Ministry of Social Welfare and Access Bangladesh Foundation arranged the workshop in association with the Disability Rights Fund, Disabled Child Foundation, National Council of Disabled Women, Sitakund Federation, Turning Point Foundation and Women with Disabilities Development Foundation.

Nuruzzaman Ahmed, MP, Minister, Ministry of Social Welfare, was present as chief guest and inaugurated the workshop. Dr Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal, Director General of Department of Social Services, and Md Ashraf Ali Khan Khasru, MP, State Minister of Ministry of Social Welfare were present as special guests.

Albert Mollah, Co-founder and Executive Director of Access Bangladesh Foundation, presented the keynote of the workshop and highlighted that Global Disability Summit is a platform to offer a concrete mechanism for collecting new and widespread commitments which are critical to achieving real change for persons with disabilities.

The first summit was held on 24th July 2018 in London where 968 specific commitments were made by different stakeholders and the government of Bangladesh made eight commitments in that summit.

The second summit was held in Norway virtually on 16-17 February 2022 where more than 7000 participants attended and 1420 new commitments have been made by over 190 stakeholders.

The Government of Bangladesh also made 11 commitments in the thematic areas of Inclusive Education, Inclusive Livelihoods, Inclusive Social Protection, Implementation of the National Action Plan, Strengthening Voice of OPDs, Strengthening Monitoring and Coordination system, Strengthening collection of Disability Disaggregated Data, Inclusive Health, Access to Justice, Emergency preparedness and response and Accessibility in the 2022 summit.

Dr Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal said that the Government is working to implement the commitments.

Md Ashraf Ali Khan Khasru said that the government is very positive towards the development of persons with disabilities.

Md Jahangir Alam, Secretary of Ministry of Social Welfare, chaired the event while Md Ruhul Amin Khan, Managing Director of JPUF delivered a welcome speech.

During the working session, the participants were divided into six groups with specific commitments of the summit and all the groups collectively captured opinions in the given work plan template.

Mohua Paul, Chairperson of Access Bangladesh Foundation, appreciated the participants for their valuable input in the workshop.

Md Ruhul Amin Khan ended the workshop with his concluding remarks and way forward.