Strengths and Weaknesses

Arguably, improvements in the collection, analysis and availability of disability statistics are crucial to promote sound evidence-based policymaking and programming decisions. When national household survey and population census data is collected in accordance with WG guidelines, data on disability prevalence is internationally comparable.  

The fifth meeting of the ESCWA Task Force for Population and Housing Censuses (2009) recommended the use of the WG-SS on disability in the 2010 Round of Population Censuses (2005-2014), in line with the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses, Revision 3.  Accordingly, the number of Arab countries implementing the WG-SS has increased over the years and there is more harmonized data on disability than the previous decade.

The region has accumulated experience in implementing the WG-SS, not only in population censuses, but also in household surveys on such subjects as poverty, labour force, health and household budgets (Table 5).  This Guidebook aims to summarizes this experience, reminding readers of the key principles and concepts of the WG-SS approach, and provides statisticians with tips on what to avoid, along with best practices and good national examples to follow. 

Nevertheless, some data is not readily available for the purposes of comparable or meaningful analysis.  The reasons for this include the lack of comparison with people without disabilities, and that data is not disaggregated nor cross-tabulated into the main socio-economic areas. Moreover, in defining persons with disabilities, some countries disseminated data with a cut-off threshold of “some difficulty” instead of “a lot of difficulty.”  However, policymakers have expressed reservation towards the low prevalence rates and requested ESCWA to improve collection methods by including additional domains in order to capture data on the majority of persons with disabilities.

This report has explored the simple to complex approaches of disability data collection and analysis in the Arab countries. Consequently, the current state of disability data collection and analysis strongly suggest the need for improvement in order to capture data on the majority of persons with disabilities. Therefore, the objectives of the recommendations herein, are to produce and disseminate the harmonization and comparability of disability data at the regional and international levels in the next round of country data collection.

Table 5.1 Selected Countries Using the WG Short Set on Functioning Questions in Census

Jordan Census 2015
Morocco  Census 2014
Oman  Census 2010
State of Palestine  Census 2007
Qatar Census 2010
Tunis Census 2014

Table 5.2 Selected Countries Using the WG Short Set on Functioning Questions in Household Surveys

Egypt LFS 2016
Saudi Arabia DHS 2016
United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi) LFS 2014
Yemen HBS 2014
Lebanon HBS2011
Iraq  I-PMM 2013