Online Reporter
Diana Nherera
THE City of Harare recently adopted a workplace disability inclusion policy that looks into the welfare of its employees with disabilities and its service users.
This was revealed by the city’s Wellness coordinator, responsible for coordinating disability inclusion issues Mrs Netsai Rugwejera, during a disability sensitisation programme for the local authority’s employees with disabilities today.
“This was in response to various challenges that were being experienced by persons with disabilities,” she said.
“So, following the adoption, we saw it necessary to meet the beneficiaries of this policy so that we could disseminate information about how the policy is going to be implemented; the plan of action, as well as how the policy is going to be monitored.
“Key highlights of the policy included inclusive recruitment issues that speak to accessible job descriptions and tailored support offered to employees with disabilities. It further entails the removal of physical and digital barriers to enable persons with disabilities to participate at par with their colleagues.”
Mrs Rugwejera said the policy also speaks about disabilities sensitive training that promotes empowerment of persons with disabilities, because our data indicated that they are lagging behind in terms of capacity building.
“So it speaks about targeted disability mainstreaming across all City of Harare by-laws, policies, standard operating procedures and programmes to ensure that no one is left behind,” she said.
“The programme also incorporated the presentation of the proposed three-year strategy and an inclusive monitoring and evaluation framework to enable the City of Harare to measure the impact of this policy.”
