Implementation of the Employment Provisions of the Uganda Persons with Disabilities Act 2006

Equal access to work and employment is a right that is demanded by the citizens of any country. Employment is instrumental to the realization of many other rights, and the inclusion of people with disabilities (PWDs) in society. Domestic legislation has a strong potential to facilitate social change and improve the rights of PWDs. In order that the goals and promises of a law are achieved, effective implementation is paramount. Uganda enacted some relatively progressive disability legislation, but it significantly lags behind in their implementation. The Uganda Persons with Disabilities Act 2006 became law since May 24 2006, but its official implementation has not commenced. This study explored the current status, the facilitators of, and the barriers to, implementing the employment provisions of the Uganda PWD Act 2006. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 macro-level policy stakeholders selected from public and civil society organizations involved in implementation. A policy literature analysis examined the Act’s alignment with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Overall, the Act’s implementation was unsuccessfully attempted, and was characterized by slow progress, voluntary compliance, unintended policy initiatives, stalemate and retrogression. Before its official implementation commenced, a Bill has been tabled in Parliament, seeking to repeal and replace the PWD Act with a substantially weaker law. The barriers and facilitators to implementation aligned around three overarching themes: policy-oriented factors, process oriented factors and tractability. The findings suggest that superficial support to disability policy without taking additional political and administrative measures such as allocating required resources, is inadequate for realizing disability rights.