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

残疾人是每个社会中最贫穷和最受社会排斥的群体之一（世界银行，2011年）。他们在低收入国家的比例过高，长期以来一直认为贫困和残疾既是彼此的原因又是彼此的结果（DFID 2000； Yeo和Moore 2003）。尽管有些人试图将残疾人纳入全球发展和减贫战略，但总体而言，这些工作还没有以系统或可持续的方式进行。这项研究建立在中心以前开展的工作基础上，包括英国国际发展部资助的跨领域残疾研究方案，该方案确定了残疾人在获得服务时遇到的一系列常见的系统性障碍，包括态度、财政和非财政资源、缺乏信息和纳入国家层面的减贫战略。这项研究将建立在这项工作的基础上，以了解这些障碍、残疾和多维贫困之间的相关性。必须认识到，在每个人都很穷的环境中，很少有人能获得雇佣劳动，入学率很低，医疗保健机会有限，社会保护几乎不存在，那么残疾人不一定与他们的邻居有很大的不同。然而，随着国家的发展，出现了“发展差距”的新证据（Groce and Kett, 2013; Groce et al., 2011; Lang and Murangira, 2009），残疾人因此落后。在2011年《世界残疾报告》的基础上，本研究将有助于了解这种发展差距是如何产生的，以及可以采取哪些措施来缩小这种差距——这是本研究的一个关键和原创主题。研究将重点关注4个撒哈拉以南非洲低收入国家：肯尼亚、塞拉利昂、乌干达和赞比亚。在过去的几十年里，这些国家都取得了一定的发展，但它们在人类发展指数（HDI）中的排名仍然存在差异，以便进行跨国比较，并深入细致地了解残疾人如何随着社会和经济发展的增加而更有可能被排除在外。这项研究将进行全面的政策分析，探讨政策制定和执行之间的明显差距，这些差距可能是矛盾或重叠的结果。它将审查政策在多大程度上实际解决了残疾人未满足的需求和权利，以及确保这些需求和权利得到满足所需的财政和人力资源水平。它将确定克服挑战和促进改进监测和评价战略的方法。这意味着需要最大限度地提高政府从人口普查和全国调查中获得的数据质量。因此，除了政策和方案分析外，还将对这四个国家的现有数据进行二次分析，以突出缺乏与多维贫困和包容障碍有关的残疾具体信息。为了解决这一预期差距，将试行一项家庭层面的调查，以检验“残疾与发展差距”假说，考虑到年龄、性别、地点和残疾状况，比较残疾人和非残疾人。该研究将以社区和个人的定性研究作为补充，以提供深入的背景。该研究将探讨残疾、缺乏包容、障碍和多维贫困之间的联系；就如何填补数据空白提供指导；找出克服障碍的方法。研究结果将主要惠及残疾人及其家庭，因为他们是政策和实践的直接目标，这些政策和实践可以通过研究而得到改善，并通过研究对政府、决策者、国家统计办公室、研究人员、残疾人组织和其他致力于减轻非洲贫困的利益相关者的预期影响而间接受益

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 povertyIt 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 studyThe 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 contextThe 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