Escaping Stigma and Neglect

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Escaping Stigma and Neglect
People with Disabilities in Sierra Leone
Working paper 164 forthcoming Giuseppe
Zampaglione Mirey Ovadiya Africa Human
Development 2 With support from the Disability
and Development Team World Bank
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Objective of the Policy Note

• Provide a diagnosis on the scale and nature of
  the problem
• Analyse current public policies in support of
  People with Disabilities
• Review public and private programs and
• Propose policy options to policy makers and
  development partners.

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A. Diagnosis

• Poverty a cause and consequence of disability

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A. Prevalence of Disability in Sierra Leone

• 2004 Census prevalence of disability at 2.4
• Likely to be underestimated Census only
  captures severe physical disability not including
  mental disability
• Reasonable global estimate is 10-12 prevalence
• Estimated 5 of HHs have one or more disabled
  person

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A. Nature of Disability
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A. Geographic Distribution

• Incidence of People with Disabilities higher in
  the South and East, and more pronounced in rural
  areas than in urban ones.
• People with Disabilities more concentrated in the
  Southern (2.9) and Eastern regions (2.8),
  followed by the Northern (2.2) and the Western
  (1.7) regions.

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A. Access to Basic Services and Employment

• Access to Health
• Access to Education
• Access to Transport/Mobility
• Income and employment

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B. Policy Framework in support of PWD

• Legal Framework
• Institutional Environment and Policies
• Constitution
• Parliament
• TRC
• Human Rights Commission of SL
• Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children
  Affairs
• NaCSA

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C. Public and Private Programs in support of PWD

• Public Programs
• NGO implemented programs
• Successes to date
• Challenges
• Funding
• Involve more CSO communities
• Strenghten DPOs
• Definition

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B. Definition beyond the emergency

• From People made disabled by an act of violence
  during the war/ People with a preexistent or war
  unrelated disability
• To All Sierra Leoneans were disabled by the war
  and all people with a disability were victims of
  the war

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D. Policy Options

• Grouped as
• (i) measures that will specifically target people
  with disabilities and
• (ii) measures that will work to mainstream
  disability issues through sector programs.

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D. Policy Options (2)

• The recommended measures are grouped under three
  categories
• (i) knowledge building and analysis
• (ii) strengthening of the legal and institutional
  framework and
• (iii) amelioration of public and private service
  coverage and financing

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D. Knowledge building
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D. Coverage and financing
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D. Legal and Institutional Framework
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Thanks!