Reducing Inequalities for People with Disabilities

Social protection has been described as a “policy framework employed to address poverty and vulnerability in developing countries” which has emerged in the form of strategies and policies adopted and adapted by international development organizations and a number of national governments in the developing world.[1]? Barrientos explained that in the work of international organizations, particularly the International Labour Organization (“ILO”), “social protection is associated with a range of public institutions, norms and programs aimed at protecting workers and their households from contingencies threatening basic living standards” that could be grouped under three main headings: social insurance, which consists of programs providing protection against life-course contingencies such as maternity and old age, or work-related contingencies such as unemployment or sickness; social assistance to provide support for those in poverty which is tax-financed rather than financed through contributions by workers and their employers as is the norm for social insurance; and labor and employment standards established to ensure basic standards at work and extend rights to workers to organize and have a voice in the decision made about their conditions of work.[2]

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This article is an excerpt from my recently updated chapter on Disability and Development.

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Social protection is vital to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals ("SDGs"), cutting across several of the SDGs relating to poverty eradication, good health, gender equality, economic growth and decent work, reduced inequalities and sustainable cities.? SDG 10 calls for reduction of inequality within and among countries through the promotion of social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status; ensuring equal opportunities and reducing inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard; and adoption of policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, to progressively achieve greater equality.? SDG 10 and social protection is linked to several other SDGs:?

• Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere–for all men and women
• Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture including for persons with disabilities
• Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages through universal health coverage including financial risk protection
• Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
• Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all?
• Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable by providing universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible green and public spaces for persons with disabilities
• Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

The adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ("CRPD") was a recognition of the important role that social protection systems can play in providing persons with disabilities with income security and access to essential benefits and services.? Article 28(1) of the CRPD calls on States to “recognize the right of persons with disabilities to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions, and … take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right without discrimination on the basis of disability”.? Article 28(2) of the CRPD requires that States “recognize the right of persons with disabilities to social protection and to enjoyment of that right without discrimination on the basis of disability” and take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right including the following measures:

“a) To ensure equal access by persons with disabilities to clean water services, and to ensure access to appropriate and affordable services, devices and other assistance for disability-related needs;

b) To ensure access by persons with disabilities, in particular women and girls with disabilities and older persons with disabilities, to social protection programmes and poverty reduction programmes;

c) To ensure access by persons with disabilities and their families living in situations of poverty to assistance from the State with disability-related expenses, including adequate training, counselling, financial assistance and respite care;

d) To ensure access by persons with disabilities to public housing programmes;

e) To ensure equal access by persons with disabilities to retirement benefits and programmes.”

According to UN Women, “[e]vidence indicates that persons with disabilities tend to be significantly poorer, with less access to vital resources and support networks, than persons without disabilities”.[3]? In the 2018 Disability and Development Report, DESA noted that persons with disabilities were “more likely to live in poverty than persons without disabilities due to barriers in society such as discrimination, limited access to education and employment and lack of inclusion in livelihood and other social programs” and that available national data on income poverty disaggregated by disability, which remains scarce, “show that the proportion of persons with disabilities living under the national or international poverty line is higher, and in some countries double, than that of persons without disabilities”.[4] ?One important element of income security is food security and DESA reported that available data in developed countries indicated that the average percentage of persons with disabilities who are unable to afford a meal with protein every second day was almost double that of persons without disabilities and that more women with disabilities than men with disabilities were in such a situation.[5]

The very first SDG calls for eradication of poverty in all its forms, everywhere, and poverty is to be broadly construed to include not only lack of income or resources, but also the lack of basic services, such as education, hunger, social discrimination and exclusion, and the inability to meaningfully participate in decision making.[6]? Closely related is SDG 2, which calls for ending hunger, achieving food security (i.e., access for all people to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round) and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture.? Social protection programs are important, often essential, policy tools for addressing poverty and food insecurity among all persons and the urgency for adequate social protection is even higher among persons with disabilities.?

The 2018 Disability and Development Report reported that most countries had disability benefit schemes that provided cash benefits to persons with disabilities; however, many countries did not provide coverage to workers and their families who have not had the opportunity to participate in the formal economy and contribute to social insurance for a sufficient period to be eligible for benefits.? Many countries also limited eligibility for disability benefits to persons or households whose economic means fell below a certain threshold and DESA noted that “[i]n some countries, more than 80 per cent of persons with disabilities who need welfare services cannot receive them”.[7]? DESA called on States to design social protection policies and programs to include persons with disabilities, remove barriers and obstacles that persons with disabilities face in accessing and fully benefiting from social protection on an equal basis with others and sensitize personnel of grant offices about barriers experienced by persons with disabilities to access social protection and approaches to overcome these barriers.[8]

In its 2024 Disability and Development Report DESA reported that in almost all countries the percentage of persons experiencing multidimensional poverty was higher for persons with disabilities than persons without disabilities—in some countries the percentage was more than double—and persons with disabilities tended to earn lower wages, to face additional costs related to disability and to lack access to financial services.[9]? In fact, the report noted that a quarter of banks worldwide, a quarter of ATMs in developed regions and half the ATMs in developing regions remained physically inaccessible for wheelchair users.

DESA also noted that in developing countries 55% of persons with disabilities experienced food insecurity.? Two out of five food banks were not accessible for wheelchair users, and more than half of restaurants worldwide, 12 per cent of supermarkets in developed countries and 38 per cent in developing countries were inaccessible for wheelchair users.? In order to make progress on SDG 2 (ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition for all persons with disabilities), the report called for improved coordination among various sectors (including education, social protection, agriculture, fishery, livestock and forestry) to enhance access, affordability and safety of food for persons with disabilities; providing equal access to agricultural and productive resources for persons with disabilities; and supporting the use of disability-inclusive agricultural technology, assistive technology and reasonable accommodation in agricultural employment.? In addition, steps needed to be taken to improve accessibility of food banks, supermarkets and restaurants for persons with disabilities.

This article is an excerpt from my recently updated chapter on Disability and Development.

Notes

[1] A. Barrientos, Social Protection and Poverty (Geneva: UN Research Institute for Social Development: Social Policy and Development Programme Paper No. 42, January 2010), 1. ?See also A. Barrientos and D. Hulme, Social Protection for the Poor and Poorest: Concepts, Policies and Politics (New York: Springer, 2016).? In addition, a group of international organizations has collaborated to create an online platform targeted at policy makers, development practitioners and human rights advocates to provide expert legal and development resources on how to better align social protection and human rights.?? See Social Protection and Human Rights - A resource platform for researchers, policy makers and practitioners (socialprotection-humanrights.org).? A glossary of definitions of “social protection” is available at What is Social Protection?

[2] Id. at 1-2.? See also Social protection - Wikipedia (“The most common types of social protection: Labor market interventions are policies and programs designed to promote employment, the efficient operation of labor markets, and the protection of workers.? Social insurance mitigates risks associated with unemployment, ill-health, disability, work-related injury, and old age, such as health insurance or unemployment insurance.? Social assistance is when resources, either cash or in-kind, are transferred to vulnerable individuals or households with no other means of adequate support, including single parents, the homeless, or the physically or mentally challenged.”).? For further discussion, see A. Gutterman, Older Persons’ Rights to Social Security (Oakland CA: Older Persons’ Rights Project, 2023).

[3] Issue Brief – Making the SDGs Count for Women and Girls with Disabilities (UN Women, 2017) (citing Disability and the Millennium Development Goals: A Review of the MDG Process and Strategies for Inclusion of Disability Issues in Millennium Development Goal Efforts (New York: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2011)).

[4] Disability and Development Report 2018 (New York: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2019), 2.

[5] Id. at 2-3.

[6] Sources for the discussion of the Goals include UN Sustainable Goals, Wikipedia (Sustainable Development Goals).

[7] Disability and Development Report 2018 (New York: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2019), 3.

[8] Id.

[9] Disability and Development Report 2024: Accelerating the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals by, for and with persons with disabilities (Executive Summary) (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, June 2024).? Poverty among persons with disabilities continued to be exacerbated by material shortcomings in mainstreaming disability inclusion in national poverty reduction strategies and social protection policies (e.g., in 2020, only 17% of countries provided universal disability benefits and just 34% of persons with severe disabilities received cash benefits).