By Aliko Munde

Chitipa, September 10, Mana: Chitipa District Council has assured the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare that it will mainstream disability issues in district development plans, which the district is formulating.

Director of Planning and Development for Chitipa, Jossen Tembo said that the district will make sure that all programmes in the district are disability inclusive.

He said this on Tuesday during a District Executive Committee (DEC) meeting organized by the Ministry of Gender under Sparking Disability Inclusion in Rural Transformation Programme (SPARK) project, which is coming to an end this September.

Tembo said that the gains the district made under the SPARK project will continue to support persons with disabilities in the district.

“The gains we have in Phase 1 of the project should be sustained and inclusion of persons with disabilities is adhered to, in all the projects and programmes in the district.

“As we are formulating our Village Action Plans (VAPs) and District Development Plan (DDP) we need to mainstream issues of disability in our documents,” Tembo said.

Speaking during the same DEC exit meeting of SPARK project, Willard Muwawa, Disability Affairs Officer, in the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, said that the project has yielded fruits as most persons with disabilities are participating in the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) funded projects.

“We have seen that there is a big impact on that one. But we are appealing to Chitipa and other district councils to mainstream issues of disabilities because a lot of people with disabilities in the communities do not participate or benefit from other projects or programmes that are done at the council,” Muwawa appealed.

The SPARK project was implemented in four districts of Chitipa, Nkhata Bay, Kasungu and Thyolo, promoting disability inclusion in government programmes funded by IFAD projects like; Transforming Agriculture through Diversification and Entrepreneurship (TRADE) and Financial Access for Rural Markets, Smallholders and Enterprise (FARMSE) and Programme for Rural Irrigation and Development (PRIDE).