NASCOH Consortium Interventions

Cognisant of the overarching importance of coordination role that NASCOH plays, NASCOH has adopted a broad strategy grounded on consortium interventions. NASCOH works with member organizations and like-minded stakeholders collaboratively, collectively, inclusively and as peers to ensure the production of direction, alignment and commitment (DAC) in attaining the goal of disability inclusion in all spheres of social, economic, political and cultural life.  The direction is a widespread agreement in a collective on overall goals, aims, and mission; alignment, the organization and coordination of knowledge and work in a collective; and commitment the willingness of members of a collective to subsume their own interests and benefit within the collective interest and benefit.  Consortium interventions have become the mainstay of NASCOH’s operations.

From 2007 to 2010, NASCOH coordinated a UNICEF-funded consortium intervention with 6 of its member organizations on “Promoting and protecting the rights of children with disabilities in Zimbabwe” focusing on psychosocial support, HIV and provision of educational support. This was a learning curve.

From 2008 to 2013, NASCOH conducted a five-year, DFID-funded electoral intervention on “Enfranchising people with disabilities to exercise their constitutional right to vote and facilitating their inclusion in governance systems”. Of note, the 8-member   electoral consortium intervention resulted in over 50 000 PWDs being availed with voter education in disability-friendly formats in 14 districts, 400 PWDs trained as election observers who observed the 2013 elections, facilitated the acquisition of identity documents to over 5 000 PWDs and facilitated access to hundreds of PWDs to positions of leadership. The program documentary is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9wbp6rwmb8&feature=em-upload_owner.

From January 2014 to December 2017, NASCOH, again in a consortium framework, trained 1 700 PWDs in HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, care, and support and as peer counselors in 30 districts of Zimbabwe in a UNDP-funded project under the theme “Addressing critical gaps in HIV Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support in Zimbabwe”’. A database is available.

From September 2017-March 2018, NASCOH, in partnership with 4 of its member organizations, conducted an IFES-funded electoral intervention on “Strengthening election administration and civic participation for people with disabilities” in which, in conjunction with ZEC, NASCOH trained 560 PWDs in Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) who each reached out to 10 PWDs each through Whatsapp, SMS, and interpersonal communication, resulting in 5600 PWDs reached.  A database is available.

A complementary countrywide consortium election intervention running from December 2018 to September 2019, supported by ZESN and EU, reached out to 1 million PWDs through a weekly 40-minute disability radio program on National FM radio station, and production and distribution of disability peer reinforcement voter education material and other promotional materials distributed to all provinces in Zimbabwe through NASCOH’s network.

From November 2018 to April 2019, NASCOH, again within the framework of collaboration, assessed a total of 2 800 polling stations in 8 provinces, with each organization assessing 350 polling stations per province. This added to the 2 522 polling stations assessed by NASCOH in a 2010 to 2012 intervention. The majority of polling stations have been rendered accessible by polling station authorities following recommendations for modification and adaptation left at polling stations that conform to an internationally recognized polling station assessment tool.