Social protection for people with disabilities in Africa and Asia: a review of programmes for low- and middle-income countries

Abstract

Despite greater need for social protection among people with disabilities, there is limited evidence on their inclusion into social protection programmes in low-and middle-income countries. This paper presents the findings from a review of regional and global data sources for Asia-Pacific and Africa to identify social protection programmes that aim to include people with disabilities. It finds a substantial number of programmes in both regions, although there is considerable variation in the quantity and types of programmes within and between regions and countries, as well as between low-and middle-income countries. Further, the quality of data is not sufficient to assess the degree to which these programmes are genuinely inclusive of people with disabilities. As such, it highlights important limitations in the way data is currently being collected that require further attention in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals and the commitment to 'Leave No-one Behind'

Integrated social protection and COVID-19: rethinking Pacific community responses in Aotearoa

“…Social protection is generally defined as strategies that address the disadvantaged situations of vulnerable groups through direct assistance or development of opportunities and capacity in the areas of poverty, health, education, employment and other aspects of well-being (Walsham et al 2019). According to Devereux and Sabates-Wheeler (2004) social protection needs to be seen as an encompassing process of prevention, protection, income-generation and transformation.…”

Disability-inclusive responses to COVID-19: Lessons learnt from research on social protection in low- and middle-income countries

“…However, determining who is disabled is methodologically and logistically challenging ( Mactaggart et al, 2016 , Mont et al, 2019 ). Many disability assessments require clinical documentation of impairments, which is not in line with the conceptualization of disability espoused by the UNCRPD ( Mont et al, 2019 , Walsham et al, 2019 ) and, particularly during COVID-19, may be difficult to conduct when health services are limited. Further, some schemes only include people with very severe disabilities, such as people requiring full-time caregiving or deemed unable to work - excluding the much larger group of people with more moderate disabilities, who often have a high need for social protection ( Banks et al, 2016 , Gooding and Marriot, 2009 ).…”

Employment based health financing does not support gender equity in universal health coverage

“…These dynamics have implications for clinical outcomes. Although social protection for illness or disability can provide a buffer against these risks, many countries with limited resources in Asia and Africa lack such schemes and systems 34…”