Bridging the Gap: Examining Disability and Development in Four African Countries

Disabled people are among the poorest and most socially excluded groups in every society (World Bank, 2011). They are disproportionately represented in lower income countries and it has long been argued that poverty and disability are both a cause and a consequence of each other (DFID 2000; Yeo and Moore 2003). Despite some attempts to include disabled people in global development and poverty alleviation strategies, overall these have not been done in a systematic or sustainable way This research builds upon previous work undertaken by the Centre, including in the DFID-funded Cross-Cutting Disability Research Programme, which identified a series of common systemic barriers that disabled people encounter when accessing services, ranging from attitudinal, financial and non-financial resources, and lack information and inclusion in national level poverty reduction strategies. This research will build upon this work to inform understanding of the correlation that between these barriers, disability, and multidimensional poverty It must be recognised that in settings where everyone is poor, where few people access wage labour, where school attendance is paltry, healthcare access is limited and social protection is almost non-existent then disabled people are not necessarily very different from their neighbours. Yet, as countries develop, there is emerging evidence of a 'development gap' (Groce and Kett, 2013; Groce et al., 2011; Lang and Murangira, 2009), whereby disabled people fall behind. Building on the World Report on Disability (2011), this study will contribute to understanding how this development gap occurs, and what can be done to bridge the gap - a key and original theme of this study The research will focus on 4 low-income Sub-Saharan African countries: Kenya, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia. All have shown some development over the past decades, but there is still variation within their rankings in the Human Development Index (HDI) to enable cross-country comparisons to be made and provide an in-depth, nuanced understanding of how disabled people are more at risk of being excluded as social and economic development increases. The research will undertake comprehensive policy analysis that explores the apparent gaps between policy formulation and implementation, which may be a result of contradictions or overlap. It will examine the extent to which policies are actually addressing unmet needs and rights of disabled people and the level of financial and human resources required to ensure they are addressed. It will identify ways to overcome challenges and promote improved monitoring and evaluation strategies. This implies the need to maximise the quality of data governments obtain from census and national surveys. Consequently, in addition to policy and programme analysis, secondary analysis of existing data in the 4 countries will be conducted to highlight the lack of disability-specific information as it relates to multidimensional poverty and barriers to inclusion. To address this expected gap, a household level survey will be piloted to test the "disability and development gap" hypothesis, taking into account age, sex, location and impairment status, comparing disabled and non-disabled people. This will be supplemented by qualitative research with communities and individuals to provide in-depth context The research will explore the nexus between disability, lack of inclusion, barriers and multidimensional poverty; provide guidance as to how the data gaps can be filled; and identify ways of overcoming barriers. The results will be of primary benefit to disabled people and their families as the direct targets of policies and practices that can be improved as a result of the research, and indirectly through the expected impact of the research on governments, policymakers, national statistics offices, researchers, disabled people's organisations, and other stakeholders working to alleviate poverty in Africa