BACKGROUND
Persons with Disabilities (PwD) are recognized as having specific needs. “Disability” is not an attribute of the person: if a person lives in an inclusive and comprehensively accessible environment, his or her impairment might not lead to a disability. As such, PwD require additional services to improve their societal integration.
This joint guidance note provides harmonized guidance on how humanitarian actors can collect data on PwD in the process of assessments and studies and encourages all Clusters to develop specific guidance on data on disability partners should collect in the process of monitoring and reporting activities.
It is important to collect data on the number of PwD and the various types of disabilities, so that humanitarian and development organisations can have a better understanding of the number of people with specific needs and the nature of such needs. This, in turn, should help promote targeted and disability-inclusive humanitarian assistance and help development actors to plan accordingly longer-term projects, in support of the authorities. Collection of data on PwD also allows agencies to facilitate the process of inter-agency referrals that ensures PwD are supported in safely accessing additional needed services.
Although a dedicated procedure exists in Ukraine to defines the conditions and criteria for establishing disability, many people living in areas affected by the conflict in eastern Ukraine struggle to establish or renew their disability status as a result of lengthy and often expensive procedures, which is further complicated by limited access to social and health services. As a result, not all IDPs and conflict-affected People with Disabilities (PwD) have an official disability certificate.
This limits their access to specific social benefit and services they would otherwise be entitled to, and may also limit their access to humanitarian assistance. In 2018, a needs’ assessment showed that out of the 4,595 older people surveyed, 17.2% were bedridden or immobile, of whom only 17.1% held a disability certificate.4 In addition, the classification of disability in three groups refers to the severity and not to the domain of disability, which results in limited opportunities for humanitarian actors to tailor their responses to the needs of PwD.