COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE LIVING STANDARDS BETWEEN HOUSEHOLDS HEADED BY PERSONS WITH AND WITHOUT DISABILITIES IN RWANDA

Abstract

This thesis addresses the issue of multidimensional poverty differences between households headed by Persons with disabilities and without, from information obtained from RPHC(5) of 2022. This thesis attempts to examine the differences in living conditions of households headed by Persons with or without disabilities. This paper focuses on the disparity in living xiii standards, especially whether the disabled-headed households differ significantly from those non-headed by the disabled. The analysis applies quantile regression that tries to paint a more detailed picture of how the various explanatory variables impact the different parts of poverty distribution. Some of the key findings are that female-headed households have a higher level of poverty represented by significant coefficients estimated at 0.56(Q25), 0.69(Q50), and 0.55(Q75) at a 0.05% level across Q25, Q50, and Q75, respectively.Severe povertyislessprevalentacrossquantiles,asrepresentedbysignificant negativeestimated coefficientsof-0.48(Q25),-0.55(Q50),and-0.77Q75.Householdsthat are headed by Persons with disabilities experience higher poverty levels, as represented by the significant estimated coefficients at 1.90(Q25), 2.09(Q50), and 2.16(Q75). Negative coefficients of - 1.67(Q25), -1.51 for Q50, and -1.90 for Q75 are quite significant to point out that urban households are less poor than rural households. The study has, therefore, identifiedtheneed forpoliciesthattargetmultidimensionalpoverty,especiallyininstances of the most vulnerable female-headed and rural disabled households. It called for integrated social protection policy aimed at avoiding duplication of effort, as well as conflicted mandates, for better resource allocation among vulnerable groups, specifically households headed by Persons with disabilities. These findings also align well with the global literature that exists on the intersectionality of disability, gender, and location in poverty.