Africa-Press – Eswatini. The International Trade Centre (ITC), through EU-funded programme, is hosting a workshop to strengthen the capacity of partner institutions to design, implement, and monitor disability-inclusive skills and enterprise development programmes, while generating concrete, institution-specific actions that support inclusive economic participation.
ITC Institutional Sustainability Expert, Bongani Simelane said they were delivering a training on disability inclusion, with a focus on non-formal TVET training providers, as well as civil society organisations (CSOs) that operate within the space of supporting vulnerable populations.
“These include women, youth, and persons with disabilities, particularly in rural communities. As part of the programme, we have defined target groups. However, we also conducted an assessment to better understand the extent to which disability inclusion interventions are integrated within the programme,” he said.
He said the training was therefore aimed at raising awareness on disability inclusion.
“It seeks to equip stakeholders with practical insights on how, as they provide training services in rural communities, they can ensure these services are inclusive and accessible to persons with disabilities” said Simelane.
The ITC is a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization for trade-related technical cooperation in developing countries. ITC is implementing
‘The Skills for Economic and Social Inclusion through Alliances programme’ that aims to empower disadvantaged youth and women in vulnerable situations to improve their economic and social inclusion.
The overall objective of the programme is to contribute towards human development and social inclusion by strengthening vocational education and training in line with labour market demands and skill needs, with a particular focus on the economic empowerment and inclusion of youth, women and other disadvantaged groups in Eswatini.
The programme has special focus on skills development needed in selected priority sectors such as agri-food sector including agro-processing value chains that have the potential for decent and green job creation, hospitality and sustainable tourism, renewable energy, manufacturing (including textiles), Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and creative industries.
The programme will work in partnership with training providers, CSOs, NGOs and community leaders among others to reach disadvantage ground in rural Eswatini to gain skills for employment and/or self-employment.
Under the EU-funded programme “Eswatini Alliances: Skills for Economic and Social Inclusion Programme (C436)”, ITC is supporting the strengthening of employability, entrepreneurial, and life skills for disadvantaged youth and women, including persons with disabilities.
However, recent field assessment findings (January 2026) confirm that disability inclusion across Eswatini’s TVET and business support ecosystem is uneven and system constrained.
While physical infrastructure in some centres is adequate, critical gaps persist in instructor capacity, institutional systems, disability-disaggregated data, and transition-to-work pathways.
The key constraint is clear; institutions are willing but not yet equipped to operationalise inclusion.
Inclusion remains ad hoc, staff-dependent, and insufficiently embedded in systems.
The workshop responds directly to this gap, positioning disability inclusion not as a compliance requirement, but as a practical systems reform agenda within skills development and MSME support.
ITC will is conducting a three-day Disability Inclusion workshop targeting project implementing partners and relevant stakeholders under the project.
The workshop has intentionally brought together both mainstream and disability-focused actors to promote shared ownership of inclusion.
The overall objective of workshop is to strengthen the capacity of partner institutions to design, implement, and monitor disability-inclusive skills and enterprise development programme.
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