Stakeholders at the training in Abuja. Photo Credit: Julian Osamoto/Radio Nigeria
For effective inclusion of disability communities, the National Population Commission is partnering with The Albino Foundation (TAF) Africa to train a team on the Washington Group Question model.
Washington Group Short Set of Disability Questions (WGQ) are set of questions that assess whether people have difficulty performing basic universal activities such as walking, seeing, hearing, cognition, self-care and communication intended to provide a quick and low-cost way to collect data, which allows disaggregation by disability status.
Director-General NPC, Dr Usifo Ojogun who declared the training open, said the focus would be on the use of WGQ to administer questions that would promote inclusion of all citizens.
On the importance of the programme, Founder of TAF Africa, Jake Epelle, noted, “we have three basic requirements for effective communication and this includes; right mindset, right skill set and right tool set, you must have the right mindset to maximise the skill set as well as know how to use the right terminology to communicate with a person with disability for better feedback”
Director, Population Management and Development NPC, Margret Edison explained that the collaboration with TAF Africa was to equip the NPC team with the needed etiquette for efficient data collection of the People With Disabilities (PWDs).
Disability Consultant, Dr Toyin Aderemi during her presentation observed that accurate data was needed in policy development, implementation, monitoring as well as evaluation of disability inclusion.
Chief Technical Adviser Census, United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) Dr Collins Opiyo, added that the housing and census exercise was apt as it will enhance already existing statistics, ensuring that no one is left behind.
Reporting by Julian Osamoto; Editing by Muzha Kucha