Malawi hosts learning route on disabilities
A year after hosting 15 countries to a learning route on gender and social inclusion, Malawi was at it again this year, hosting four countries to another learning route but this time on disability inclusion.
The six-day Learning Route, launched as part of the SPARK (Sparkling Disability Inclusive Rural Transformation) project that is implemented by Light of the World in partnership with Procasur Corporation, International Labor Organisation, and funded by IFAD helped to develop good practices and approaches that promote programmes to integrate people with disabilities.
The learning route brought together 30 participants from Malawi, Cameroon, India and Uganda in the framework of a training and capacity building activity entitled “Effective practices, tools and approaches for promoting disability inclusive programmes”.
The objective of the Learning Route was to improve IFAD supported projects and its implementing partners’ understanding of how to mainstream disability inclusion approaches, tools and methodologies to overcome barriers faced by persons with disabilities.
The event saw the participants travel to Machinga and Zomba where PRIDE is working to appreciate, firsthand, how persons with disabilities are being integrated into the mainstream interventions of the project.
The tour also afforded the participants an opportunity to appreciate various innovations that are being used to aid the farming activities the farmers with disabilities are working on.
The Learning Route also afforded the participants an opportunity to raise their level of awareness by acquiring new knowledge and tools to understand the situation of persons with disabilities in their own areas of interventions and identify opportunities to improve their practices and policies.
This project aims to enhance the adaptive capacity and food security of rural communities in Malawi facing the challenges of climate change.
PRIDE is funded by the Government of Malawi and IFAD and has incorporated disability as a cross-cutting issue in its gender-sensitive approach since the inception phase.
After four years of implementation, PRIDE has devised innovative strategies to empower persons with disabilities and foster their leadership roles in their communities.