Rwanda

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Results in this brief are from an analysis of the 2019-2020 Demographic and Health Survey. Information on methodology is in the main text of the report and in the method briefs. Additional results are available in results tables on the DDI website.

Share of Adults with Functional Difficulties

 

In Rwanda, the share of adults aged 15 and older with any functional difficulty stands at 25.2%. As shown in Table 1, it varies from a low of 18.7% in Kigali to a high of 29% in West. In all regions, seeing is the most common type of functional difficulty; communication and self-care are the least common.

Table 1: Rwanda: Share of Adults with functional difficulties at the regional level (%)

Region Any Seeing Hearing Mobility Cognition Self-Care Communication
East 23.9 16.4 5.0 7.2 6.3 1.9 1.7
Kigali 18.7 12.5 2.6 5.0 4.9 1.1 0.7
North 26.6 15.9 6.2 11.2 7.6 2.2 1.2
South 26.0 19.4 5.7 7.8 5.2 2.1 1.8
West 29.0 19.5 5.8 11.0 9.7 1.9 1.2
National 25.2 17.1 5.2 8.5 6.8 1.9 1.4

Notes: ‘Any’ is the share of adults with any level of difficulty (some difficulty,  a lot of difficulty or unable to do in one or more functional domains. For instance, ‘Seeing’ is the share of adults with difficulty in seeing of any level. Shares for the six domains do not add up to the share of any difficulty as some individuals may have functional difficulties in more than one domain. Source: Own calculations based on Rwanda DHS data.

Multidimensional Poverty

 

Multidimensional poverty captures an individual’s experience of multiple deprivations (e.g. low educational attainment, having inadequate living conditions). In Rwanda, the shares of persons with at least a lot of functional difficulty and some difficulty who are multidimensionally poor stands at 80.7% and 74.4%, respectively. This is higher than that of persons with no difficulty at 63.2%.

Thus, there is a disability gap in multidimensional poverty between persons with at least a lot of difficulty and no difficulty (17.5 percentage points) and between persons with some difficulty and no difficulty (11.2 percentage points). In other words, persons in Rwanda with functional difficulties more frequently experience multiple deprivations than those with no difficulties. As illustrated in Figure 1/Table 2, multidimensional poverty is common in all regions among adults with functional difficulties.

Figure 1: Rwanda: Multidimensional poverty headcount among adults with no, some and at least a lot of difficulty (%)

Figure1a: Adults with no difficulty

Figure 1a maps the share of adults with no difficulty at the regional level in Rwanda

Figure 1b: Adults with some difficulty

Figure 1b maps the share of adults with some difficulty at the regional level in Rwanda

Figure 1c: Adults with at least a lot of difficulty

Figure 1c maps the share of adults with at least a lot of difficulty at the regional level in Rwanda

Legend of Figure 1 This is the legend for different categories of the multidimensional poverty headcount from a low of 30 to 39.9% to a high of 90% and above.
Source: Own calculations based on Rwanda DHS data (2019-2020). The notes of Table 1 apply.

Table 2 (Supporting Figure 1): Rwanda: Multidimensional poverty headcount among adults with no, some and at least a lot of difficulty (%)

Region No difficulty Some difficulty At least a lot of difficulty
East 67.1 78.2 83.4
Kigali 31.8 40.9 52.0
North 70.0 79.2 84.9
South 70.0 80.5 82.8
West 68.7 76.5 83.0
National 63.2 74.4 80.7