Disability and Poverty: Uncovering the Empirical Dynamics

1
Disability and Poverty Uncovering the Empirical
Dynamics

• HD Learning Week
• November 10, 2003

2
Why are we here?

• Gain a better understanding of what is meant by
  disability
• Explore the relationship between poverty and
  disability
• Learn about the challenges of doing empirical
  work on disability

3
Todays Program

• Introduction
• General overview
• Epidemiology
• Relation to poverty
• Potential utility of LSMS
• Case studies
• Mental health in Bosnia
• Household survey in Indonesia
• Poverty Mapping in Uganda

4
Who are disabled people?

• The United Nations census recommendations state a
  person with disability is defined as
• A person who is limited in the kind or amount of
  activities that he or she can do because of
  ongoing difficulties due to a long-term physical
  condition, mental condition, or health problem
  (United Nations, 1998)
• There are 400 million disabled people in
  developing countries

5
What causes disability?

• Malnutrition
• Poor maternal health
• Child birth
• Vehicular crashes
• Work injuries
• Conflict
• Illness e.g., TB, polio, measles, HIV/AIDS,
  diabetes, etc.

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World Bank and disability What is the link?

• Successful implementation of the MDGs results in
  the prevention of disability and increased
  productivity for disabled people
• Two-way causality between disability and poverty
• Disabled people are disproportionately poor, and
  poor people are disproportionately disabled
• Doing a good job on poverty alleviation requires
  taking disabled people into account

7
Disability and Poverty Research Concerns

• The definition of disability is complex
• Different definitions and different data
  collection methodologies yield different rates
• Data on disability often not collected, or at
  least not given proper attention

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Prevalence of Disability in Selected Countries

• Percent of Population Disabled
• Bangladesh 0.8
• Niger 1.3
• Egypt 4.4
• Italy 5.0
• Germany 8.4
• United States 15.0
• Australia 18.0

9
International Efforts to Obtain Comparable Data

• UNSD study on disability data collection
• DISTAT-II
• Washington City Group on Disability Measurement

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Needed Empirical Work on Disability

• Data on prevalence
• Relation to poverty, income, health, and
  education
• Understanding of the dynamics between disability
  and poverty