Understanding the Political and Institutional Conditions for Effective Poverty Reduction for Persons with Disabilities in Liberia

这项研究将解决一个首要问题：“什么样的政治和制度条件与有效的减贫和发展有关？国内和外部行为者可以做些什么来促进这些条件？”为此，它将把重点放在利比里亚一个国家，并深入探讨国家和国际机构和行为体之间的关系，以了解国家与社会之间的联系和进程如何使最边缘化的人群之一-残疾人受益。有人认为，残疾人往往是世界上最贫穷的人之一（Groce et al, 2011），特别是在低收入和冲突后国家。他们经常面临社会排斥、边缘化和污名化。这一般意味着他们的“政治发言权”有限，这反映在国家政策，特别是旨在减轻贫穷的政策中缺乏对残疾问题的注意。因此，残疾人的生活条件往往会随着时间的推移而恶化，从而促进了人们经常讨论的残疾与贫困之间的相互联系——一种“恶性循环”——从而导致越来越严重的剥夺。然而，利比里亚政府正试图打破这一循环。自2003年残酷的内战结束、2005年非洲第一位女总统当选以来，利比里亚采取了一系列措施，试图改善残疾人的生活。中国签署并批准了《联合国残疾人权利公约》，支持成立国家残疾人事务委员会。作为主要的国际行为体之一，联合国通过联合国利比里亚维持和平特派团（联利特派团）的人权与保护科，在促进利比里亚政府与民间社会之间富有成效的交流和持续对话，以及在国家减贫和政策制定中增加对人权的关注方面发挥了重要作用。这些行动是基于一个前提，即有可能促进和培育一个“良性循环”，通过残疾人及其组织的反复反馈过程，利比里亚政府的努力可以得到加强。为了了解这一反复的过程，需要使用定量和定性方法进行进一步的工作，以便更好地了解政策和方案对利比里亚各地残疾人生活的影响。正如千年发展目标等指标所衡量的那样，促进残疾人及其家庭的福祉对于实现公平发展至关重要，特别是考虑到最近衡量国家一级发展绩效的标准从经济生产转向人民福祉（Stiglitz et al. 2009）。这种转变带来了新的挑战，不同的评估和评价程序，多学科的理论方法和新的分析策略。这项研究将首次尝试使用一种创新方法，通过调查至少有一名成员有残疾的家庭，评估同一家庭中不同成员的生活质量指标，并使用考虑到这些数据嵌套性质的方法分析信息，从而扩大这一领域的知识。此外，这项研究将在正在进行的关于幸福的国际辩论中进行。由于多维贫困和残疾问题的复杂性，将采用多学科方法，并在整个过程中涉及广泛的利益攸关方，包括残疾人组织、非政府组织和大学。如果成功，研究项目将提交给伦敦大学学院伦理委员会批准。

This research will address the overarching question 'What political and institutional conditions are associated with effective poverty reduction and development, and what can domestic and external actors do to promote these conditions?' It will do this by focusing on one country, Liberia, and exploring in-depth the relationship between national and international institutions and actors to understand how the linkages and processes between state and society are benefiting one of the most marginalised populations - persons with disabilities.It is argued that persons with disabilities tend to be among the poorest in the world (Groce et al 2011), particularly in lower income and post-conflict countries. They frequently face social exclusion, marginalisation and stigmatisation. This generally implies they have limited "political voice", which is reflected in a lack of attention to disability issues within national policies, in particular those aimed at poverty alleviation. As a result, the living conditions of persons with disabilities tend to worsen over time, facilitating a frequently discussed reciprocal link between disability and poverty - a 'vicious circle' - that produces a spiral of increasing deprivation. However, the Government of Liberia is trying to break this circle. Since the end of the brutal civil conflict in 2003 and the election of Africa's first female President in 2005, Liberia has taken a number of steps to try to improve the lives of persons with disabilities. It has signed and ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), and has supported the establishment of a National Commission on Disability. One of the major international actors, the United Nations, through the Human Rights and Protection Section (HRPS) of the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia (UNMIL), has been instrumental in facilitating a productive interchange and constant dialogue between the Liberian government and civil society, as well as increasing the human rights focus in national poverty reduction and policy development. These actions are based on the premise that it is possible to promote and foster a 'virtuous circle' in which the efforts of the Liberian Government can be reinforced through an iterative feedback process from persons with disabilities and their organisations. In order to understand this iterative process, further work needs to be undertaken using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to better understand the impact of policies and programmes on the lives of persons with disabilities across Liberia.The promotion of wellbeing for persons with disabilities and their families is crucial in achieving equitable development, as measured by indicators such as the Millennium Development Goals, particularly considering the recent shift in the criteria for measuring country-level development performance from economic production to people's wellbeing (Stiglitz et al. 2009). This shift entails new challenges, different assessment and evaluation procedures, multidisciplinary theoretical approaches and new analytical strategies. This research will represent a first attempt to use an innovative approach to broaden knowledge in this area by surveying families that have at least one member with a disability, assessing quality of life indicators from different members within the same household, and analysing the information using methodologies which take into account the nested nature of this data. In addition, the research will be situated within the on-going international debate on wellbeing. Due to the complexity of both multidimensional poverty and disability issues, a multidisciplinary approach will be used and a broad range of stakeholders will be involved throughout the process, including disabled peoples organisations, NGOs, and universities.If successful, the research project will be submitted to the UCL Ethics Committee for approval.