Tanzania is set to establish a national fund for people with disabilities (PWDs) in a bid to help improve their lives through various development sectors.
Stella Ikupa, Tanzania’s deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled, made the announcement on Wednesday when speaking in an ongoing budget parliamentary session in the country’s capital Dodoma.
Ikupa said that the move is meant to improve service delivery of the department for the well-being of PWDs.
According to the national disability survey in 2008, 3.2 million Tanzanians (7.8 percent) of the population aged 7 years and above have some form of disability and up to 5.4 million (13.2 percent) are affected by disability.
She said that in the 2019/2020 fiscal year, the Tanzanian government has allocated 103 million Tanzanian shillings (44,492 U.S. dollars) as a start-up capital for the establishment of the fund.
“This is one of the government strategies of meeting to global commitments of promoting an equitable and sustainable development envisaged in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” she said.”
