Supporting the design and collection of data needed for inclusive policies

Timely, high quality, data is important for the design, monitoring and evaluation of inclusive policies, especially when those policies require significant resources. In recent years there has been great progress in disablity data collection, including with greater use of the Washington Group set of questions across censuses, surveys and administrative data. However, more efforts are needed in for disaggregation of data and analysis to inform policy makers work and OPDs advocacy.  Also, data on support needs and disability related costs are not well captured by existing data sets and require additional efforts and instruments.

Data for inclusion is one of the main focuses and added value of CIP with a team of highly skilled and experienced professionals on staff and as associates. In 2020, CIP supported the following:

  • With the ILO-UNICEF-UNPRPD inclusive social protection project, CIP provides technical support in data analysis for
    • Lebanon data analysis – extra costs, economic well-being: We provided technical support to an ILO project including 1) descriptive analysis of socio-economic indicators using their labor force survey, 2) estimation of the extra expenditures related to disability using the Standard of Living methodology, and 3) guidance on the structure of the report, and 4) review of various drafts of the report
    • Georgia data analysis – extra costs, economic well-being. We conducted a quantitative analysis of the situation of people with disabilities in Georgia using multiple data sets, namely the HIES, LFS, MICS, and the census. In addition to estimates of prevalence of disability and patterns of disability we explored the relation between disability certification and the identification of disability using the Washington Group questions. We also disaggregated various socio-economic indicators to explore the differences in well-being between people with and without disabilities, and estimated the extra expenditures associated with living with a disability.
  • With Leonard Cheshire, CIP supported an initiative to assess additional cost of disabilities for working age adults in Bangladesh and Kenya
    • Building on previous work, notably from Jill Hannas-Hancock, we developed a methodology for estimating the goods and services purchased that are related to disability and the good and services required for full participation. We then trained teams in Bangladesh and Kenya to collect and analyze the data. That data has been collected and we are working on the analysis now. This analysis will also include the standard of living estimates of extra expenditures related to disability and an examination of consumption patterns using the countries’ HIES’s. A key part of this analysis is to estimate the extra costs associated with working. The final report will provide recommendations on how best to incorporate what we know about extra costs into the design of the social protection system.
  • We also provided support to the Australia DFAT program Prospera in Indonesia in their technical assistance to Indonesia government with estimates of disability extra costs for policy development purpose. Through technical support and training sessions, we supported Prospera in their work to estimate the extra costs of disability using all three methodologies:  standard of living, goods and services, and goods and services required.

  • Working with UNICEF in Georgia and with SODIS in Peru, CIP conducted a study to estimate the costs of goods and services required for inclusion, the results of which should be available by 2023
  • CIP also organized an international group of experts to coordinate the development of methodologies for estimating extra costs of disability and incorporating them into the design of social protection that will be published shortly by ILO.
  • We have provided technical assistance to national statistics offices in Thailand, Zimbabwe, and Namibia in their data collection efforts, as well as to a USAID project on the collection of data in support of inclusive education. With our advice, and technical support, Vietnam will be the first country to use of the ILO/WG disability employment module in their labor force survey. Related to our work on social protection, we helped with the design of a support needs survey in Kenya. That data has been collected, and now being analyzed by the Kenyan national statistics office
  • Working with WHO and Monash University, we produced a series of three papers analyzing the impact of COVID-19 on the use and provision of assistive technology. All three of those papers are available in a special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health on assistive technology in low resource settings, edited by our CEO, Daniel Mont, available here: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/disabilities_services
  • Indicators – Working with ESCAP and UNFPA we reviewed the state of data collection in East Asia and the Pacific and their ability to report on disability indicators, with recommendations for improving data systems. At the request of DESA, we produced a paper on how to construct autonomy indicators for the UN Statistical Commission’s Titchfield Group on Old Age Statistics.