Dominican Republic
Go back Results are from an analysis of the 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 6 (MICS6). Information on methodology is in the main text of the report and in the methods briefs.
Key indicators on the deprivations and wellbeing experienced by women with and without functional difficulties are presented in Table 1. Table 1 begins with information on the multidimensional poverty headcount—the rate of women deprived in more than one dimension in the areas of education, health, and standard of living. Women with at least a lot of functional difficulty have a multidimensional poverty headcount of 31% compared to 19% for women with some functional difficulty and 15% for women with no difficulty.
Table 1_Dominican Republic: Key indicators for women age 18 to 49 by functional difficulty status (% and percentage points)
| Indicator | No Difficulty |
Some Difficulty |
Difference between no difficulty and some difficulty |
At least a lot of difficulty |
Difference between no difficulty and at least a lot of difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multidimensional poverty headcount | 15 | 19 | -4*** | 31 | -16*** |
| Less than primary school | 13 | 17 | -4*** | 29 | -16*** |
| Owns a mobile phone | 92 | 90 | 1* | 84 | 8*** |
| Safely managed drinking water | 88 | 86 | 2** | 83 | 5*** |
| Safely managed sanitation | 85 | 84 | 1* | 81 | 4** |
| Clean fuel | 96 | 96 | -1*** | 95 | 1 |
| Electricity | 99 | 99 | 0 | 97 | 1 |
| Adequate housing | 87 | 87 | 0 | 84 | 3 |
| Owns assets | 49 | 48 | 0 | 47 | 2* |
| Having felt discriminated against or harassed | 8 | 11 | -3*** | 16 | -8*** |
| Happiness: very or somewhat happy | – | – | – | – | – |
Notes: *, **, and *** indicate that the difference is statistically significant at the 10%, 5% and 1% levels respectively. ‘-‘ indicates not available. Numbers in the difference columns are in percentage points while all other numbers in the table are percentages. The share of women having felt discriminated against or harassed is on the basis of any ground.
Source: Dominican Republic 2019 MICS6, own calculations
Education
The share of women ages 18 to 49 who have less than primary school as their highest level of schooling attained is significantly higher among women with at least a lot of functional difficulty (29%) and women with some difficulty (17%) compared to women with no difficulty (13%). This boils down to gaps of 16 percentage points (p.p.) between women with at least a lot of difficulty and no difficulty and four p.p. between women with some functional difficulty and no difficulty.
Personal Activities
Women with at least a lot of functional difficulty are less likely to own a mobile phone than women with no difficulty, at 84% and 92%, respectively. At 90%, women with some difficulty are also less likely to own a mobile phone than women with no difficulty.
Health
There are significant differences in terms of the rates of access to safely managed drinking water and sanitation, with lower rates for women with some difficulty and even lower rates for women with at least a lot of difficulty. For both indicators, these differences are small, ranging from one to five p.p.
Standard of Living
Rates of access to electricity and adequate housing are overall similar for the different functional difficulty groups. There are very small but significant differences in terms of the share of individuals with access to clean fuel, with higher rates for women with some difficulty compared with women with no difficulty. Rates of asset ownership are lower among women with some or at least a lot of difficulty compared to women with no difficulty, but the difference is statistically significant only between women with at least a lot of difficulty and with no difficulty.
Insecurity
Women with some difficulty and at least a lot of difficulty are more likely to report feeling discriminated against or harassed based on any ground, at rates of 11% and 16% compared to 8% of women with no difficulty.
More results for the Dominican Republic are available in Results Tables on the DDI website.