Resources search

Social protection programmes are increasingly being adopted in low- and middle-income countries as a set of strategies for poverty reduction, improving livelihoods and decreasing inequality. Due to high levels of poverty and social exclusion, people with disabilities – who comprise upwards of 15% of the global population – have been identified as a key target group for inclusion in social protection, in both international guidelines and in national strategies. However, there is currently a lack of evidence on whether these programmes are adequately reaching and meeting the needs of people with disabilities.

The aim of this research was to assess the extent to which social protection systems in Nepal and Vietnam address the needs of people with disabilities. This research uses a mixed methods approach, combining a national policy analysis with district-level qualitative and quantitative studies in each country

"Cerebral palsy is the most common cause of physical disability in children worldwide, and yet in most low resource settings there are few services available to support children with cerebral palsy or their families. Research is required to understand the effectiveness of community and/or home based programmes to address this gap. This 2-year study aimed to evaluate a participatory caregiver training programme called ‘Getting to know cerebral palsy’ in Ghana. The training programme consisted of a monthly half-day support group with training, and a home visit, delivered across eight sites in Ghana over 10 months. A total of 76 families and children were included at baseline and 64 families followed up one year later at endline. Children were aged between 18months and 12 years with a mean of 3.8 years and a range of severity of cerebral palsy. Nearly all (97%) the caregivers were female and the father was absent in 51% of families. The study was a pre-post intervention design using mixed methods to evaluate the impact. A baseline and endline quantitative survey was conducted to assess caregiver quality of life (QoL) and knowledge about cerebral palsy and child feeding, health, and nutrition outcomes. Qualitative data was collected to explore the impact and experiences of the training programme in more depth".

This report, formed of two parts, provides robust empirical basis to support the theorized disability-poverty link. The first section presents a systematic review of the literature on the relationship between disability and economic poverty. The second section explores the economic consequences of the exclusion and inclusion of people with disabilities in the areas of education, employment and health. The key pathways through which these economic costs may arise are discussed and studies that have attempted to quantify the financial impacts are reviewed

This report presents a summary of the findings of a study that developed and tested a best-practice population-based survey methodology to estimate the prevalence of disability in children and adults in India, and compared the extent to which people with and without disabilities access key mainstream services and opportunities including health, education and livelihoods in Telengana State, India

This report presents a summary of the findings of a study that developed and tested a best-practice population-based survey methodology to estimate the prevalence of disability in children and adults in Cameroon, and compared the extent to which people with and without disabilities access key mainstream services and opportunities including health, education and livelihoods in north west Cameroon