Social protection for disability inclusion in Kenya and Uganda

This series of publications forms part of Development Initiatives’ (DI’s) work on data to support disability inclusion. As a member of the Inclusive Futures consortium, DI has analysed progress made in providing social protection programmes that benefit persons with disabilities in Kenya and Uganda. In doing so, we have also highlighted challenges that need to be addressed to make sure that such schemes are inclusive.

Each country report:

• Reviews policy frameworks, existing schemes and institutional setups for social protection
• Tracks investments in disability-specific and mainstream social protection programmes, based on budgetary allocations over five financial years.

The synthesis paper:

• Identifies similarities and differences in the frameworks, schemes and set ups for social protection in Kenya and Uganda
• Compares investment trends for social protection programmes
• Highlights issues that should inform programming and operationalisation of the findings
• Makes recommendations for regional cooperation, policy directions, institutional coordination and better disability data collection and management.

Key findings

The analysis showed that:

• Both countries have a similar pattern of low and stagnant investment trends in social protection programmes.
• In Kenya, while social protection is essentially a national government function, county governments are establishing their social protection programmes within sectors, but most county governments do not have social protection policies and laws. In Uganda, despite clear demarcation of roles between national and district local governments in the national social protection policy, there is duplication of activities.
• The Kenya review notes restrictive eligibility criteria in accessing optimal social protection benefits whereby, for example, a beneficiary/household enrolled in one of the schemes is not allowed to enrol in any other programme.
• The Uganda review finds social protection in the social development sector is among the least funded in the country’s public investment.
• Lack of data disaggregation by disability, age and location has been found to be a huge problem in both reviews.

Key recommendations

The papers recommend that the national governments of Kenya and Uganda could consider:

• Cross-country collaboration and advocacy through existing international and regional policy frameworks.
• Allocation of additional financial resources to social protection programmes to facilitate coverage and put in place accountability mechanisms.
• Support for persons with disabilities with targeted disability-specific budget allocation as grouping persons with disabilities considering the intersectionality of multiple forms of discrimination and vulnerabilities tends to obscure investments in disability-specific programmes and projects.
• Ensuring representation and participation of organisations of persons with disabilities in collecting, analysing and disseminating disaggregated data to inform better planning, design and targeting of national social protection strategies and programmes.

Read the reports

Kenya report: Social protection for disability inclusion in Kenya

Uganda report: Social protection for disability inclusion in Uganda

Synthesis report: Social protection for disability in Kenya and Uganda

The two country reports and accompanying synthesis paper have been funded with UK aid from the UK government and were developed with the support of the Inclusive Futures consortium. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the UK government or other members of the Inclusive Futures consortium.

The Inclusive Futures consortium is made up of disability and development specialists and global disability leaders from 16 organisations, coming together under one initiative funded by UK aid from the UK government. Its goal is to ensure opportunities for persons with disabilities and a future that’s disability inclusive.

The country reports have been reviewed by the disability and social protection community of practice under the guidance of the International Disability Alliance in Kenya and Uganda.

Photo caption: Elijah, a micro entrepreneur based in Kenya who is part of Umande self-help group, received assistance through Light for the World and other donors during the Covid-19 pandemic, which helped keep his group’s business sustainable