Ms Fatoumata Diouf:

I am the regional director for Sightsavers in west Africa where I am based in Dakar in Senegal.

Sightsavers is proud to be a partner of Irish Aid. Through this work I am able to see for myself day in and day out the impact Ireland’s assistance is having across a number of countries in west Africa. I will share some highlights with members.

In the area of education we have rolled out a pan-disability approach in our inclusive education programme, which means that we are admitting children with all types of disability into mainstream schools. These are children with visual impairments, hearing impairments and intellectual or physical disabilities. It also means that we are training teachers to be able to address the needs of these children. We have also improved accessibility in our pilot schools to make sure the school environment is friendly for children with disabilities.

Through our advocacy, we have put disability on the agenda of the government. We have either supported the development of or contributed to inclusive education policies in our countries of intervention. In the area of social inclusion in Cameroon, for example, we have successfully advocated for the inclusion of questions on disability in the ongoing national census. In addition, Cameroon is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa that has disability status recorded on voters' registration cards. In Senegal we established the debates on inclusion during the presidential election in February and have had adherence by 13 political parties to include disability in their agendas.

In the area of eye health we have embedded a system strengthening approach in our eye health projects, with a focus on strengthening human resources for eye health, improving infrastructures and strengthening policy and planning. I was delighted to be in Dublin in February to speak at the launch of Sightsavers Ireland’s Put Us in the Picture campaign which included a photographic exhibition of our work, in partnership with Irish Aid, to improve political participation for people with disabilities in Cameroon. However, as the exhibition highlighted, for people with disabilities, there is still a lot that needs to be done to ensure equal rights and equality of opportunity.

In my speech in February I spoke about the key role Ireland had played in 2015 in co-chairing the negotiations that delivered the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as the sustainable development goals and how we hoped that this proud tradition could continue in helping to ensure disability was put at the heart of international development. As my colleague said, we view the publication of A Better World as an opportunity for Ireland to be a champion of disability inclusive development, not only in its own programmes but also in its work globally at UN, EU and other international bodies. Through our campaign, we hope to engage with the Government of Ireland, Deputies and Senators, Irish civil society and members of the public to make them aware of how they can be a catalyst for change and make a profound difference to the lives of literally millions of people who have been left behind for too long. I am delighted to be back in Ireland this week to make that case. We very much appreciate being given the opportunity to present to members and be of any assistance we can to the committee.