Appointing the right person(s)

If dialogue is a matter of trust, the personal involvement of key persons with the capacity to engage their respective institutions or organizations is paramount. Depending on the stage of the policy cycle and the policy issue under discussion, those decision-makers can be government representatives, officials from line ministers, members of parliaments or any other official representing the public institution(s) in charge of elaborating and/or adopting those concepts, notes laws and regulations that constitute policy.

The two INSPIRED dialogue processes addressing labour rights of people with disabilities held in Mongolia and in Kyrgyzstan offer quite illustrative examples of the importance of engaging with officials, parliamentarians or government representatives that are especially concerned by the policy reform at stake. In the case of Mongolia, a technical officer ascribed to the Disability development department of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, who suffered from severe motor disability, was a key advocate of reform and the living proof of the levels of excellency that people with disabilities can attain in their work, something crucial in a social context that tends to stigmatise disabled people as unfit or unable to perform the same duties as ordinary workers. Similarly, the outcomes of the INSPIRED dialogue process in Kyrgyzstan would not have materialised without the support of Mr. Dastan Bekeshev, a blind Member of Parliament that has been at the forefront of most legislative initiatives regarding people with disabilities.