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：哪些政治和体制条件与有效的减贫和发展有关，国内外行为者可以做些什么来促进这些条件？为此，它将重点放在一个国家--利比里亚，深入探讨国家和国际机构与行为者之间的关系，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。他们经常面临社会排斥、边缘化和耻辱。这通常意味着他们的“政治发言权”有限，这反映在国家政策中对残疾问题缺乏关注，特别是那些旨在减轻贫困的政策。因此，随着时间的推移，残疾人的生活条件往往会恶化，助长了经常讨论的残疾与贫困之间的相互联系--这是一种“恶性循环”--从而造成日益严重的贫困。然而，利比里亚政府正试图打破这一怪圈。自2003年残酷的国内冲突结束并于2005年选举出非洲第一位女总统以来，利比里亚采取了若干步骤，努力改善残疾人的生活。它签署并批准了《联合国残疾人权利公约》(UNCRPD)，并支持建立国家残疾人委员会。作为主要的国际行为者之一，联合国通过联合国驻利比里亚维持和平特派团(联利特派团)人权和保护科，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更加注重人权方面发挥了重要作用。这些行动的前提是，有可能促进和促进一种‘良性循环’，在这种循环中，利比里亚政府的努力可以通过残疾人及其组织的反复反馈过程得到加强。为了了解这一迭代过程，需要使用定量和定性方法进一步开展工作，以更好地了解政策和方案对整个利比里亚残疾人生活的影响。促进残疾人及其家人的福祉对于实现公平发展至关重要，如千年发展目标等指标所衡量的那样，特别是考虑到衡量国家一级发展业绩的标准最近从经济生产转向人民福祉(Stiglitz等人)。2009年)。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战略。这项研究将是第一次尝试使用创新的方法来扩大这一领域的知识，方法是调查至少有一名残疾成员的家庭，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的嵌套性的方法分析这些信息。此外，这项研究将处于正在进行的关于幸福的国际辩论中。由于贫困和残疾问题的复杂性，研究将采用多学科方法，在整个过程中将涉及广泛的利益相关者，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.