A non-governmental organisation (NGO), Connected Advocacy for Empowerment and Youth Development Initiative, is advocating for the inclusion of People with Special Needs (PWSNs) in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Executive Director of the NGO, Mr Israel Orekha, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin City, Edo State, on Friday, July 17, 2020.
Orekha said the inclusion, empowerment and employment of PWSNs in the implementation of the SDGs would help foster actualisation of the goals.
“The Sustainable Development Goals are obvious intersections that reinforce the predicaments that people with special needs encounter daily in our society.
“The reason is that the majority of them are confronted with lack/poor shelter, clothing, hunger, poor health, quality education, inequality, unemployment and other socioeconomic debilitations that make life not worth living.
“Despite these factors that intersect PWSNs being widely acknowledged, national and global efforts to combat poverty and inequality among them have not always been adequate.
“This is in spite the fact that no internationally agreed development goal, like the SDGs; can be achieved without including the rights, needs and perspectives of the world’s over one billion PWSNs.”
He said the SDGs would have great impacts on PWSNs if well-coordinated and implemented.
“The SDGs promise to leverage on poverty reduction, wealth creation and peaceful coexistence of the human race.
“But, to achieve this, the disequilibrium meted out against persons with special needs has to be redressed.
“This is because persons with special needs are more likely to experience economic and social disadvantage compared to the general population,” Orekha added.
By Joy Odigie
