Poverty reduction and disability

This is a major policy document from DFID, the British government's overseas aid department. It assesses the significance of disability as a key development issue, and its importance in relation to poverty, human rights and the achievement of internationally agreed development targets. It also sets out ways in which development cooperation, including DFID's own work, can help incorporate the rights and needs of disabled people into the mainstream of poverty reduction work and the achievement of human rights. It is useful for disability policy makers, NGOs and disabled people working in advocacy and development

In this resource, intellectually disabled people and their families speak out about social exclusion and poverty. The broader scope of this work is to understand why this group has not managed to benefit from the millennium development goals and examine regional barriers to change. This document concludes with a set of recommendations and best practices from NGOs, civil society members and government officials. This resource would be useful for anyone with an interest in social exclusion disability and development

"This paper critically reviews and synthesises the currently available evidence base regarding the relationship between disability, poverty and health. While it is widely asserted that disability and poverty are closely linked, this is the first review that explicitly asks: ‘What is the current evidence base for the link between disability, poverty and health in low-and middle-income countries?...This paper presents findings from our critical review, and a discussion of those themes that emerge from the small evidence based sample we found. However, our most significant finding is the current lack of strong evidence on the links between disability poverty and health - evidence which is needed to build effective international development policy and global health programming"
Working paper 16

This report presents a "comprehensive biennial review on the implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons, and the progress and challenges concerning the advancement of persons with disabilities in the context of development and the realization of the Millennium Development Goals." It consists of an introduction, five informative sections, and recommendations to advance disability-inclusive Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development goals by member states and other stakeholders. The detailed annexes provide further technical information in support of the recommendations

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of long-duration poverty and disability. It seeks to summarise the current state of knowledge about disability and chronic poverty in Uganda; discuss factors that lead to disabled people living in perpetual poverty; describe efforts to address the long-term poverty of disabled people in Uganda; and propose policy interventions aimed at the inclusion of disabled people in Uganda's development process

When vulnerable groups such as disabled people are surveyed, representative welfare estimates from non-purposive sample surveys becomes an issue. This paper takes the example of Uganda and describes the connections between disability, poverty, wellbeing and social welfare. This is possibly the first time that statistically representative information on income poverty amongst disabled people has been generated for a developing country

"Poverty and disability are interrelated, but data that can disentangle the extent to which one causes the other is not available. However, data from Vietnam allows us to examine this interrelationship in a way not previously done. Using small area estimation techniques, we uncover three findings not yet reported in the literature. First, disability prevalence rates vary significantly within a county even at the district level. Second, the correlation between disability and poverty also varies at the district level. And most importantly, the strength of the correlation lessens based on district characteristics that can be affected by policy. Districts with better health care and infrastructure, such as roads and health services, show less of a link between disability and poverty, supporting the hypothesis that improvements in infrastructure and rehabilitation services can lessen the impact of disability on families with disabled members"
Working Paper Series, No 20