News

Volume 5 Issue 4 - February 15, 2007

N.C.P.E.D.P. organises Strategy Workshop in Jaipur

D.N.I.S. News Network – National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (N.C.P.E.D.P.) organised a Strategy Workshop in Jaipur from 12 – 13 February 2007, to discuss the evaluation of D.S.I. supported project ‘Building a collective voice of disabled people in India through networking, awareness raising and advocacy’. The focus was on generating ideas for the future project activities and on finding ways in which National Disability Network (N.D.N.) and Disability News and Information Service (D.N.I.S.) could be further strengthened and improved.

Major areas addressed in the workshop vis-à-vis N.D.N. were: Should N.D.N. focus on numbers or consolidation & capacity building? What kind of capacities do Partners need and how? Is there a need for decentralisation? What should be done to strengthen N.D.N.? How to make Partners more accountable?

The following points emerged from the Group and Open House Discussions:

1. Expansion of N.D.N.
Expansion of N.D.N. in weaker states; Re-evaluating Partnerships; Reaching out to people in the language which they understand.

2. Capacity Building
Booklet on Policy Advocacy; Facilitating Peer Learning and catalysing contacts with other Partners; Advocacy Training; Sharing Best Practices; Building Youth Leadership.

3. Decentralisation
Building Regional Leadership; Appointing Zonal Coordinators

4. Strengthening of N.D.N.
Focus on Key Result Areas; Increase the Profile of N.D.N.; Highlight Success Stories; Have a Nodal Person in Delhi who could travel; Identify and nurture Regional Representatives and N.D.N. Ambassadors.

The discussion on D.N.I.S. focused on the issue of language, structure, layout and design, resource centre and publicity. Following recommendations emerged from the workshop:

1. Language
Come up with a quarterly digest that could be translated in Hindi.

2. Tool &Structure
Partners to send articles on a monthly basis; Letters to the editor; Contact Schools of Journalism and Social Work.

3. Layout and design
Internal Search Engine needs improvement; Make it more Google Search friendly.

4. Resource Centre
Chat board; Moderated listserves; Rotate and change people who would answer queries; Workshop for the media; Workshop for N.D.N. Partners on documentation

5. Publicity
Advertisement in Disability Magazines; Posters on D.N.I.S.; Writing to National Institutes about D.N.I.S.