What does a disability-inclusive pandemic response mean for Liberia and how can it lead to genuine systemic change?

包容残疾人的大流行应对措施对利比里亚意味着什么？它如何能带来真正的系统性变革？

• 批准号: 2567669
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2567669
• 关键词: What; does; disability; inclusive; pandemic

It is widely recognised that people with disabilities are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 (FCDO,2020; UN,2020a). Yet there is limited empirical evidence on the ways and extent to which the response itself has affected the lives of disabled populations in low-income settings, and how this compares to other epidemics. This research compares how people with disabilities experienced outbreaks of two widespread infectious diseases in Liberia (Ebola and COVID-19). Liberia has high levels of multidimensional poverty. The country is still reeling from the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which killed nearly 5,000 people with over 10,000 confirmed cases, and is now grappling with COVID-19. Like many countries, the Liberian Government implemented extensive measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, including lockdowns and enforced social distancing. These have negative implications for people with disabilities (FAO,2020), and COVID-19 is likely to exacerbate pre-existing barriers (UN,2020b). However, while there is a raft of guidance on how to include people with disabilities in the COVID-19 response (UN,2020a,2020b; WHO,2020), there is little empirical evidence of the impact this has had on disabled populations in low-income settings.This proposal builds upon previous DFID/ESRC-funded research. It will examine how people with disabilities can achieve meaningful inclusion in epidemic and other humanitarian responses, and how trust in government - a critical driver in public health compliance - and the capacity of health systems to deliver health messages and services can be developed. This research will gather in-depth qualitative data, taking an intersectional approach to analyse inequalities in disability and public health crises, examining issues including gender, impairment and poverty.

人们普遍认为，新冠肺炎对残疾人的影响不成比例(FCDO，2020年；联合国，2020a)。然而，关于应对措施本身影响低收入环境中残疾人口生活的方式和程度，以及这与其他流行病相比如何，经验证据有限。这项研究比较了利比里亚残疾人经历两种广泛传播的传染病(埃博拉和新冠肺炎)爆发的经历。利比里亚的多层面贫困程度很高。该国仍受到2014年至2015年西非爆发的埃博拉疫情的影响，那次疫情导致近5000人死亡，确诊病例超过1万例，目前该国正在努力应对新冠肺炎疫情。与许多国家一样，利比里亚政府采取了广泛措施遏制新冠肺炎的传播，包括封锁和强制社会距离。这些对残疾人有负面影响(粮农组织，2020年)，而新冠肺炎可能会加剧先前存在的障碍(联合国，2020b)。然而，尽管有大量关于如何将残疾人纳入新冠肺炎响应的指导(联合国，2020a，2020b；世卫组织，2020年)，但几乎没有实证证据表明这对低收入环境中的残疾人口产生的影响。这项建议建立在英国国际发展部/经济社会研究中心资助的先前研究的基础上。它将审查残疾人如何在流行病和其他人道主义应对措施中实现有意义的包容，以及如何发展对政府的信任--公共卫生合规的关键驱动因素--以及卫生系统传递健康信息和服务的能力。这项研究将收集深入的定性数据，采用交叉方法分析残疾和公共卫生危机中的不平等，审查包括性别、损害和贫困在内的问题。