Colombia: Public Policy
Hernando Ayala Melgarejo (disnetco@yahoo.com)
Colombian Disability Policy has been being discussed during the previous 20 months under a work structure framed by National Groups of Inter-Area Linkage formed by representatives from government institutions and members of national non governmental organizations of and, for people with disabilities. These have five components: prevention, rehabilitation/habilitation, education, job and society integration, and accessibility to the physical environment, transport, information, sports and culture.
At the same time, the group coordinators form the National Technical Committee where all topics are discussed and where a work style that includes all sectors has been set up and is being coordinated by the President's Council for Social Policy in a joint effort with the Technical Secretariat from the Advisory Committee chaired by the Ministry of Health.
What gave birth to the "Support to the drafting of a Sustainable Social Development Policy to Address the At Risk Groups with an Emphasis on the Population with Disabilities" project was the need to get close to the territories to contrast those concepts that have been formalized at a national level. The Presidential Council for Social Policy helped to develop this project in January and February 2001, and has presented the initiative to the Andean Development Corporation.
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