NUDIPU’s project “Amplifying the voices of PWDs in National plans and budgets” seeks to promote disability inclusive planning and budgeting in health and education sectors in Uganda by 2018. The project will primarily target the government technocrats and political leaders at national and local levels and Disabled Peoples Organisations (DPO) leaders as secondary beneficiaries. The project specific goals are: 1. To strengthen use of media platforms by persons with disabilities to engage stakeholders on access to health and education services 2. To influence the health and education sector plans and budgets to be disability Inclusive and responsive. This will reduce the gap in the financial allocation of disability related activities, hence result in improved access to social services in mainstream development. Furthermore, the capacity of leaders of PWDs and their DPOs needs to be improved to engineer participation in planning and budgeting processes to increase demand for disability inclusive budgeting and planning. The project will undertake consultation processes with PWDs and their organisations on planning and budgeting will be strengthened to increase the voices of PWDs in budget decision making levels. There is need for prudent financial planning and budgeting that is disability sensitive to enhance improved service delivery to PWDs in Uganda.

Collaborative continuous advocacy brings change 

The voice of persons with disability (PWD) in many instances is muffled and those with disability are left behind despite the adage, disability not being inability and ‘No one left behind’.  During processes of formulating development plans and budgets persons with disability are more often than not left out and not engaged.  In response to this systemic marginalization, the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU) set up Amplifying voices of PWD in national plans and budgets in Uganda project to amplify the voices of PWD in national plans and budgets.  The introduction and promotion of disability inclusive planning and budgeting, targeting government technocrats and political leaders at the national and local level, and involving Disability Persons Organizations (DPO) leaders as secondary beneficiaries made this outcome possible.    

The project aims to improve the livelihoods of PWD through enhancement of their inclusion in the development agenda by the state and non-state actors as well as National Development Plan II goal of Transforming Ugandan society from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years.  This is in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of PWD (UNCRPD) Articles 24 and 25 and the 2016 UNCRPD concluding observations on health and education. Disability inclusiveness and responsiveness in budgeting is set to be achieved through the establishment of a strong platform for engagement of different stakeholders on health and education via media and the influencing of the health and education sector plans and budgets.   

One of the key issues that NUDIPU advocated for was the need for affordable health care for all people in Uganda, in particular PWD. According to the Uganda National Health Accounts FY 2014/2015 and FY 2015/2016, individual out of pocket expenditure as a proportion of current health expenditure alarmingly increased from 3.9% to 41% during the same period. In collaboration with Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG), advocated for the fast tracking of the National Health Insurance Scheme Bill that provides for affordable services for all Uganda citizens. The National Health Insurance Scheme Bill provided for the establishment of a health insurance scheme for all Ugandans and also the creation of an insurance fund to enabled investment of all the funds collected. 

With advocacy from 2018, NUDIPU and CSBAG reported that the National Health Insurance Scheme 2019 was tabled before parliament on 22nd August 2019 and the lobbyists continued to demand for the institutionalization of the scheme. This development signifies that government responsiveness to continuous advocacy on the needs of citizens is increased by collaboration between citizens, government and other stakeholders