IPA conducted the listing and baseline data collection between February and March 2022. Data collectors went through a rigorous one-week training on how to collect data on disability including on disability awareness, etiquette, safeguarding, quality data management and how to communicate with people with disabilities to ensure they were included in the survey.

To measure disability, we’re using a special tool designed by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics and the International Labor Organization. It was designed to be added to the Kenyan Labour Force Surveys and using it means that our results can be compared to other national datasets using the same questions. The questions not only address whether people have a disability, and what type, but what factors support and hinder them from employment.

Following their training, each enumerator worked in a sub-location. IPA conducted regular checks on the data to ensure its accuracy and identify any problems. Sightsavers’ research team will be analysing the data and providing the results.

Key results

The baseline data is in the process of being analysed and written up, with a report due later in the autumn. Although more work is required, some of the initial results of the study have been fascinating:

• We recruited more than 4,400 people for the survey across the areas where the programme is being implemented and the control areas.
• More than 60% of our sample are women, and the average age was 44 years.
• More than 17% – 767 people in our sample reported having a disability. 38% of these people reported experiencing stigma related to their disability.
• Marital status also matters. Widowed people with disabilities were more likely to experience stigma compared to people with disabilities who were married or living together.
• Nearly four out of five people in our sample were employed, but women, older people and people with disabilities were less likely to have a job than men, younger people, and people without disabilities.

While these results will eventually be compared against those collected at the end of the programme, the data also has a more immediate use. As the Global Labor Program – Inclusive Futures moves into its second year, the consortium partners will reflect on these results and consider what they need to do now to ensure they achieve the change required to improve the lives of workers in these value chains.