Disability, Education and Employment in Developing Countries: from charity to Investment Kamal Lamichhane, Ph. D. Research fellow Research institute, Japan international cooperation agency (JICA) December, 3, 2014 United Nations, New York

Background  15% of the world's population have some form of disability (World Report on Disability, 2011)  80% of them live in developing countries, making the worldwide disabled population collectively one of the poorest and most marginalized segments of society (ILO, 2007; UN 2006; UNDP, 2006)  Significant shift in approaches to disability:  Historically, people with disabilities were treated as passive recipients of support based on feelings of pity  During the civil rights era of the 1960s and 70s, a wide variety of strategies and programs intended to affect a shift from policies based on exclusion, with targeted charities, toward policies embracing persons with disabilities were introduced worldwide (Cook and Burke, 2002)  A paradigm shift from “the medical model” to “the social model” of disability  UN Conventions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (adopted by the UN General Assembly on Dec 13, 2006)

Background (contd.)  Numerous studies on the importance of investment in education for people without disabilities since the late 1950s (Card, 1999, 2001; Heckman et al., 2006; Psacharopoulos and Patrinos, 2004)  However, it is still unclear:  To what extent disability-inclusive development programs have been successfully implemented in developing countries.  What is the effect of education for their social inclusion and economic empowerment?  What are the obstacles of schooling and employment of them?  How the government can design effective policies for their full and equal participation?

Purpose of the book  The questions above are still not answered properly  Lack of empirical studies on the human capital formation for disabled people particularly in low and middle income countries  This book aims to at least partially fill this lacuna in existing knowledge by providing evidences on  the returns to the investment in education,  the effect of education on the labor market participation  poverty reduction  the barriers to both employment and education by the cases of Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and the Philippines

Contribution of the book  The empirical works in this book will be important assistance for the governments and international agencies to design policies toward mainstreaming disability in the development efforts.

Data and methods  Together with primary dataset collected, nationally representative datasets of Asian countries are used  Econometric techniques are employed for returns to education and to examine effect of education on employability, jobs satisfaction, poverty and determinants of schooling  Qualitative interviews and thematic content analysis are used to capture further information on barriers to education

Disability and returns to education (Nepal) Source: Psacharopoulos and Patrinos (2004) Returns to education (percent)

Disability and returns to education (Nepal) (contd.) Estimation results of earnings regression (dependent variable: log hourly wage)

Disability and barriers to employment  People with disabilities are marginalized in labor market participation  They are hired last and fired first generally  Disabling barriers: perceived lower productivity, discriminatory attitudes, lower level of education, lack of training programs, lack of reasonable accommodation provisions, inaccessible infra-structures, wage disparity

Nexus of education to employment (Bangladesh) (1) (2) Base outcome: Not working Base outcome: Day labour VariableWorking Self-employedEmployee Dummy = 1 if female-0.798*** ***0.114*** (0.004) (0.008)(0.007) Age0.004*** 0 (0.000) Married-0.035*** 0.133***-0.115*** (0.006) (0.014)(0.012) Years of schooling0.002*** *** (0.000) (0.001) Visual impairment *** (0.007) (0.015)(0.012) Hearing impairment-0.038** * (0.017) (0.034)(0.028) Physical impairment-0.046** (0.021) (0.037)(0.031) Cognitive impairment-0.206*** (0.051) (0.096)(0.070) Difficulty in self-care-0.098* (0.055) (0.143)(0.095) Difficulty in communication-0.189*** (0.056) (0.139)(0.137) Dual impairment-0.079*** (0.018) (0.030)(0.024) Multiple impairment-0.232*** (0.032) (0.049)(0.040) Log monthly expenditure-0.013*** 0.196***0.044*** (0.004) (0.009)(0.007) Dummy = 1 if remittance-0.053*** 0.030***-0.025*** (0.004) (0.011)(0.008) Dependency ratio0.027*** 0.250***-0.122*** (0.009) (0.021)(0.017) Number of observations Regression results of employability and occupational choice for total sample

Nexus of education to employment (Bangladesh) (contd.) Regression results of employability and occupational choice (disability only) (1) (2) Base outcome: not working Base outcome: day labour VariableWorking Self-employedEmployee Dummy = 1 if female-0.744*** ***0.107*** (0.013) (0.024)(0.021) Age0.002*** 0.006*** (0.001) Married-0.042** 0.212***-0.146*** (0.021) (0.041) Years of schooling0.006*** *** (0.002) (0.003)(0.002) Severity of impairment-0.126*** ***0.087** (0.022) (0.042)(0.039) Log monthly expenditure ***0.038** (0.013) (0.025)(0.019) Dummy = 1 if remittance-0.052*** 0.075** (0.014) (0.029)(0.022) Dependency ratio0.120*** 0.224***-0.123*** (0.032) (0.059)(0.046) Number of observations

Life changes resulting from employment (Nepal) Any changes after getting a job? YesNo Life changes experienced Spending time efficiently Increased living standard Making new friends Gaining respect from people Discovering new abilities Increased confidence to face challenges

Barriers to Education (Nepal & India) Barriers VisualHearingPhysicalTotal Financial difficulty 7.1 (15) 18.2 (39) 14.9 (32) 40.2 (86) Lack of school support 3.3 (7) 21.0 (45) 1.4 (3) 25.7 (55) Other barriers * 2.3 (5) 11.2 (24) 8.9 (19) 22.4 (48) Lack of available schools 0.9 (2) 15.4 (33) 4.7 (10) 21.0 (45) Rejected by schools 1.9 (4) 1.4 (3) 0.4 (1) 3.7 (8) Total (number of observations)214 * Communication difficulty, inaccessible school infrastructure, and school being far from home

Education & Parental Attitudes (Nepal) Parental attitudes Awareness of disability issues Understanding of rights of people with disabilities Attitude toward abilities of people with disabilities Very high/positive High Moderate Low Not at all/negative Total (number of observations)203 Average years of schooling by parental attitudes

Concluding remarks  Persons with disabilities are poorer and face more inequality  To reduce poverty and inequality and achieve inclusive and sustainable development, give equal footing to the issues of those with disabilities  In Post 2015 development goals, people with disabilities should not be left behind  Exclusion of disabilities makes the society more vulnerable

Concluding remarks (contd.) Paradigm shift: 1. From exclusion to inclusion 2. From sympathy to rights 3. From charity to investment