Measuring Children's Disabilities via Household Surveys: The MICS Experience

Edilberto Loaiza, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

This paper documents UNICEF's experience in measuring children's disability via household surveys and documents the main findings of this exercise in over 20 developing countries. The data was collected under the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey methodology developed by UNICEF to monitor the advancement towards the goals of the World Summit for Children in 1990 and ratified during the 2002 UNGASS for children. The disability module included under MICS is a tool to collect data on the type of impairments children have (e.g. seeing, hearing, muscle movement impairments, language production and reception, etc.) or about actual health conditions (e.g. epilepsy). A few questions ask about activity limitations (difficulties doing activities required or desired for everyday living (e.g. walking, learning). After analyzing disability indicators by socio-economic and demographic indicators within and between countries, the paper will present methodological and policy recommendations.