LocationsInclusion & Human Rights | Ghana
UNPRPD Joint Disability Programme: Advancing the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Ghana
Transforming Ghana's disability inclusion landscape through legislative reform, inclusive data systems, and strengthened coordination to uphold the rights of every person with a disability.
Despite being a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Ghana continues to face significant challenges in translating its commitments into concrete policies, systems, and services that genuinely uphold the rights of persons with disabilities. Gaps in legislation, weak coordination among duty bearers, inadequate disability-disaggregated data, and limited capacity among organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) have slowed progress toward a truly inclusive society. Following a situational analysis conducted by the UN in Ghana, the UNPRPD Multi-Partner Trust Fund approved a joint programme to address these systemic barriers. Implemented by UNDP and UNFPA in partnership with the National Council on Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) and the Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations (GFD), with technical support from UNICEF and UNESCO, the programme takes a rights-based approach — placing the empowerment and meaningful participation of persons with disabilities at its centre.
Advancing Disability Rights Through Systems Change
The UNPRPD Joint Disability Programme is working to lay the essential foundations for disability inclusion in Ghana — from reviewing and re-enacting the Disability Act in line with CRPD standards, to building inclusive data collection systems that make persons with disabilities visible in national planning. By strengthening coordination among government agencies, civil society, and OPDs, and building the capacity of disability rights advocates — with a deliberate focus on women with disabilities — the programme is ensuring that the voices of persons with disabilities shape the policies and programmes that affect their lives.
