Social Resources and Accessibility to Care: A Case Study of Persons with Disabilities in Tanzania

In Tanzania, which is one of the low income countries, governmental organizations (GOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have put more and more emphasis on the rights of people with disabilities (PWD) after 2000s. The National Policy on Disability 2004 and the Persons with Disabilities Act 2010 have put in force, and surveys on PWD are conducted in 2002 and 2012 Census. In 2008, the government carried out the first comprehensive survey on disability in the country. According to the survey, 7.8% of the population aged 7 and above have some form of activity limitation.

     However, there is no actual service provided by GOs for PWD. Some PWD get information about the services provided by NGOs and can access to the services, but others may not. The accessibility is dependent to the social resources which PWD have. Social resources include the social network, the physical environment around PWD,　and the economic situation of the persons themselves or their care givers. It is apparent that there are many factors cause inequalities in accessibility to care.

     The applicant is going to consider what kind of social resources are important to get care in the Tanzania mainland context. The applicant puts the focus especially on the importance of the social network, because in Tanzania mainland people rely on the social network to move and can gather money from the network. The social network gives chance to PWD for changing situations around them such as the physical environment and the economic circumstances on a temporary basis. The data used in this presentation will be documents on GOs/NGOs’ activities for PWD, and findings from on-site observation and interviews with PWD in Dar es Salaam and Dodoma, which the applicant has conducted in 2013.