The Secretariat of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities (SADPD), opened its office in Cape Town in 2004. This decision was taken during the Disability African Regional Consultative Conference held in May 2003 in Johannesburg.  The task of setting up the Secretariat was initiated by continental DPOs with the mandate and support of the African union and the South African government.

Secretariat Mandate

The Secretariat's mandate is to facilitate the implemenatation of the Continetal Plan of Action by governments, disability organisations and non-governmental organisations.

Programmes

The Secretaraiat has five key programmes. They include: - HIV/AIDS, Youth and Children, Gender, Law Policy and Livelihood Opposrtunities and PRSP.

Its programmes started in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda and Sénégal. Since then, we have facilitated the establishment of new Decade Steering Committees in 16 other African countries. These countries are Namibia, South Africa,   Cameroon, Burundi, Tanzania, Egypt, mauritania, Senegal, mali, Cape Verde, Ghana, Togo, Zambia, Gambia, Guinea and Burkina Faso. The SADPD intends to extend the scope of its work in all of the 53 AU member states.

Mission

The mission of the Secretariat of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities is to empower governments, Decade Steering Committees, Disabled Person’s Organisations and development organisations to work in partnership to include disability and persons with disabilities into policies and programs in all sectors of society in Africa. Our work is especially focused on capacity building, advocacy and lobbying and awareness raising.