Livelihoods and Disability: The Complexities of Work in the Global South
Four-fifths of the world population lives in the global South (United Nations 2011), where disability prevalence is higher and livelihood challenges are greater than in developed countries or the global North (WHO and World Bank 2011; Mitra and Sambamoort
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Livelihoods and Disability: The Complexities of Work in the Global South Jill Hanass-Hancock and Sophie Mitra
Introduction Four-fifths of the world population lives in the global South (United Nations 2011), where disability prevalence is higher and livelihood challenges are greater than in developed countries or the global North (WHO and World Bank 2011; Mitra and Sambamoorthi 2014). Yet, the majority of research on disability and livelihoods (including studies on employment and economic wellbeing) has been conducted in the global North (OECD 2003). In the North, it is well established that people with disabilities have worse outcomes on a set of economic indicators than people without disabilities including lower employment rates, wages and earnings. This raises the question of whether similar outcomes are found in the global South. Most people with disabilities living in the global South experience compounded livelihood challenges related to general economic disadvantage as well as disability. Social support grants are mostly absent (see Schneider et al. 2016, in this volume), raising the question of how people with disabilities can maintain livelihoods and be integrated in income-generating activities such as employment. Little systematic information is available on the employment situation of people with disabilities in the global South, where employment refers to paid work for another individual or organization or through self-employment. The World Bank estimates that the employment rate of people with disabilities in the global South is 58.6 per cent for males and 20.1 per cent for females, compared with 71.2 per cent and 31.5 per cent for nondisabled males and females respectively in the global North (WHO and World Bank 2011). Mizunoya and Mitra (2013) in their analysis J. Hanass-Hancock South African Medical Reseach Council, Durban, South Africa S. Mitra (*) Fordham University, Bronx, NY, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 S. Grech, K. Soldatic (eds.), Disability in the Global South, International Perspectives on Social Policy, Administration, and Practice, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42488-0_9
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of 15 countries in the global South estimate that in 13 of these countries, the employment rate of people with disabilities is lower than that of nondisabled people. In nine of the 15 countries, there is a statistically significant gap showing lower employment rates for people with disabilities. Overall, the evidence suggests that there is a disability gap in employment rates in the global South and that policies promoting access to employment may be particularly important for the economic well-being of people with disabilities and their families. The attempt to make people with disabilities participate in the labour market is not necessarily a feasible solution to address livelihood challenges for all people with disabilities (Soldatic 2013), however, and this becomes a serious issue when disability as well as environmental condi
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