Resources search

Exploring the concerns of persons with disabilities in Western Zambia

CLEAVER, Shaun
POLATAJKO, Helene
BOND, Virginia
MAGALHÃES, Lilian
NIXON, Stephanie
2018

Expand view

Background: Understandings of disability are rooted in contexts. Despite the world’s significant contextual diversity, postcolonial power dynamics allow influential actors from the global North to imagine that most people across the global South understand disability in one generalised way. When it informs programmes and services for persons with disabilities in the global South, this imagining of a single generalised view could reduce effectiveness while further marginalising the people for whom the programmes and services were designed.

 

Objectives: In the interest of better understanding a contextually grounded meaning of disability, we explored the expressed concerns of two organisations of persons with disabilities and their members in Western Zambia.

 

Method: In this qualitative constructionist study, data collection focused upon life with a disability and servicesavailable to persons with disabilities. Data were collected through 39 individual interviews and eight focus group discussions with 81 members of organisations of persons with disabilities. Data were analysed thematically.

 

Results: The participants’ main expressed concern was poverty. This concern was articulated in terms of a life of suffering and a need for material resources. Participants linked poverty to disability in two ways. Some participants identified how impairments limited resource acquisition, resulting in suffering. Others considered poverty to be an integral part of the experience of disability.

 

Conclusion: This study contributes to literature on disability theory by providing a contextually grounded account of a particular understanding of disability and poverty. The study also contributes to disability practice and policymaking through the demonstration of poverty as the main concern of persons with disabilities in this context.

Disability and poverty in developing countries : a snapshot from the World Health Survey

MITRA, Sophie
POSARAC, Aleksandra
VICK, Brandon
April 2011

Expand view

This paper outlines the economic and poverty situation of working-age persons with disabilities and their households in 15 developing countries. Using data from the World Health Survey, the study presents estimates of disability prevalence, individual-level economic well-being, household-level economic well-being, and multidimensional poverty measure. Detailed appendices are provided to support the results of the study. This paper is useful for people interested in the social and economic conditions of people with disabilities in developing countries
Social Protection Discussion Paper No 1109

Social protection for low capacity households in Zambia

HOLMES, Rebecca
SLATER, Rachel
May 2008

Expand view

Social protection is seen as a central pillar of growth in Zambia’s National Development Plan, but its implementation remains a challenge. Enabling households to ‘graduate’ from social protection support means building their assets and increasing their resilience to shocks and stresses, and existing strategies are hampered by lack of knowledge on the numbers and needs of poor households

Using social transfers to improve human development

DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (DFID)
February 2006

Expand view

This note provides an introduction to how social transfers - particularly cash transfers and vouchers - can improve human development, particularly for the extreme poor and socially excluded

Making cash count : lessons from cash transfer schemes in east and southern Africa for supporting the most vulnerable children and households

DEVEREUX, Stephen
et al
2005

Expand view

This is the report of a study comparing unconditional cash transfers to vulnerable groups in 15 countries in east and southern Africa, with in-depth analysis of four counties - Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mozambique and Zambia. Because cash transfers are new to this region, the aim is to draw lessons for policy from a comparative review. The report finds that knowledge gaps impede the development of meaningful policy. This work would be useful for anyone with an interest in vulnerable groups, development and the socio-economic factors

Disability and rehabilitation status : review of disability issues and rehabilitation services in 29 African countries

GIANNELLLI, Massimo
DEEPAK, Sunil
Eds
December 2004

Expand view

This report provides information related to disability issues and rehabilitation services, provided by 29 countries of Africa, and includes demographics, the presence of national policies and NGOs. The report is divided into the following three parts: a global review of information, the country profiles and a summary table of the information provided in individual countries. This report is useful for people interested in disability and rehabilitation services in Africa

Information and communication technologies and poverty reduction in Sub Saharan Africa : a learning study (synthesis)

GERSTER, Richard
ZIMMERMAN, Sonja
2003

Expand view

A report of the learning study carried out as part of the Building Digital Opportunities (BDO) programme.The study focuses on mapping the experiences of BDO partners with ICTs and poverty reduction in order to enable BDO partners to improve their understanding of the role of ICTs in poverty reduction and play a pro-poor role in multilateral forums like the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). It draws on research into the use of information and communication technology in Mali, Uganda and Zambia, and examines progress in fulfilling BDO's global objective to ensure that such technology contributes to the achievement of the 8 Millenium Development Goals and 17 Millenium Development Targets

HIV stress in primary school teachers in Zambia

BAGGALEY, Rachel
et al
1999

Expand view

A study was made of stress factors experienced by primary school teachers in Zambia after they had attended a course on stress management and counselling skills. Their pupils were significantly affected by poverty, death and illness of parents, fellow-pupils and teachers, teenage sex and pregnancy, violence in the home and, among girls, low self-esteem. The HIV epidemic had a major bearing on these factors, and there were wide-ranging effects on the teachers' own lives. Despite the training they had been given, many teachers felt that they could not adequately counsel their pupils on these matters. The teachers were in need of continuing support and training to enable them to cope with this aspect of their work

Effects of HIV/AIDS on farming systems in Eastern Africa

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS (FAO). Farm Management and Production Economics Service
1995

Expand view

A detailed account of a UNDP-funded study in three eastern African countries of the impact of HIV/AIDS on rural populations, their livelihoods and their farming systems. Considers direct and indirect costs, and the impact on the transmission of knowledge about farming

E-bulletin