Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Pandemic

This situational analysis (SITAN) addresses the question: “what is the current situation for persons with disabilities in Tanzania?”. It has been prepared for the Disability Inclusive Development programme (which works on access to education, jobs, healthcare, and reduced stigma and discrimination for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, and Tanzania), to better understand the current context, including COVID-19, and available evidence in Tanzania. It will be helpful for anyone interested in disability inclusion in Tanzania, especially in relation to stigma, employment, education, health, and humanitarian issues. This SITAN has been briefly updated from the April 2019 SITAN.

This situational analysis (SITAN) addresses the question: “what is the current situation for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh?”. It has been prepared for the Disability Inclusive Development programme (which works on access to education, jobs, healthcare, and reduced stigma and discrimination for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, and Tanzania), to better understand the current context, including COVID-19, and available evidence in Bangladesh. It will be helpful for anyone interested in disability inclusion in Bangladesh, especially in relation to stigma, employment, education, health, and humanitarian issues.

Summaries on the findings from the following queries:

What evidence and data is available on the potential financial and economic impacts of COVID-19 on people with disabilities?

What measures can be taken to limit the negative economic consequences for people with disabilities?

In the framework of the 2020 High-level Political Forum, the event provided a platform for governments championing disability-inclusive sustainable development. Governments were able to share the measures that they have and will carry out to ensure that the “leave no one behind” and “reach the furthest behind first” will still be achievable despite all the challenges caused by the pandemic. The event also featured diverse testimonies from persons with disabilities, in particular underrepresented groups, sharing their experiences and requests with world leaders in order to rebuild a more disability-inclusive future

A collection of stories from people with various disabilities across the globe sharing their experiences with the COVID-19 outbreak and pandemic risk reduction strategies implemented by their governments. Some stories are written by IDA and some are external.

Examples are:

• How absence of transport can be fatal: A Story from Uganda
• In Uganda, a Deaf man loses his leg after being shot during curfew
• Voices of Mexico: Disability and COVID-19 | Voces de Mexico: Discapacidad y COVID-19
• COVID-19 in Mexico: the experience of deafblind children told by their mothers (Espanōl)
• Reaching Persons with Deafblindness
• COVID-19 and The Forgotten People (Indonesia)
• When accessible information is far from a reality: Zimbabwe during COVID-19
• The experience of a blind woman in Kenya under COVID-19 outbreak
• Being a single mother of two persons with disabilities under COVID-19 (South Africa)
• Autistic students in South Africa: how has their life changed?
• The Story of Rose Rokiatou: COVID-19 Pandemic and Financial Vulnerability of Persons with Disability in Mali
• COVID-19 in Romania: Life-threatening situations reported
• COVID-19 in Nepal: What are the challenges for indigenous persons with disabilities?
• COVID-19 in India : Technology can be your best friend or worst enemy

Steps are described that support the implementation of mitigation measures to help prevent, reduce and respond to risks of exclusion and/or disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups. The mitigation measures aim to promote the protection of all groups during the pandemic (throughout the various phases of prevention and response) and contribute to alleviating the impact of the changing dynamics on the protection environment of the most vulnerable.

Groups highlighted to be at disproportionate protection risk include internally displaced people (IDPs) in IDP hosting sites, Muhamasheen (marginalized communities), refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, people with disabilities, women and girls

In August 2019 Kenya conducted its eighth Population and Housing Census. Data provided by the census is vital for the government, private sector and civil society to design and target disability-inclusive policies and programmes. Census data is also a critical input in the response to coronavirus, as it can support mapping of vulnerable communities and the distribution of funding to ensure public safety, health facilities, and social and economic protections for people with disabilities. In November 2019 and February 2020 a series of preliminary census reports were released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS). These preliminary census reports provide summary tables of statistics drawn from the census data. An initial analysis of Kenya’s 2019 disability statistics using data sourced from these reports is presented

The 2019 census demonstrates the progress Kenya is making towards disability-inclusive data collection by integrating internationally comparable questions for identifying people with disabilities. This background paper provides a quantitative analysis of Kenya’s disability demographics, including disability prevalence rates at the national and subnational levels and by domain, and a critical appraisal of the factors that may have contributed to the results.

There has been much work related to the evolution of recovery pathways following critical illness. COVID-19 presents a real opportunity to ensure full implementation of existing hospital and community based rehabilitation services for people recovering from critical illness, and to identify areas requiring further development in the post-COVID-19 era. The Life After Critical Illness (LACI) work stream of the Faculty (of Intensive Care Medicine, UK) was halfway to being delivered when the pandemic struck. This position statement and provisional guidance has been produced to support the pandemic and provide a national framework for future Critical Illness Recovery Services.

This ‘tips sheet’ provides an insight to Gender-based violence (GBV) practitioners, on the risks and barriers that persons with disabilities, in particular women and girls may face during response for COVID 19, and practical action for gender-based violence (GBV) practitioners to integrate attention to disability into GBV prevention, risk mitigation and response efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. This note draws on the IASC Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, applying these to the COVID-19 pandemic, response and practical tips from experience of HI and collaborating partners in South Sudan