Palestine

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Results are from an analysis of the 2019-20 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 39% compared to 26% for women with some functional difficulty and 13% for women with no difficulty.

Table 1_Palestine: Key indicators for women age 18 to 49 by functional difficulty status (% and percentage points)

Notes: *, **, and *** indicate that the difference is statistically significant at the 10%, 5% and 1% levels respectively. 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: Palestine 2019-20 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 (36%) and women with some difficulty (26%) compared to women with no difficulty (12%). This boils down to gaps of 24 percentage points (p.p.) between women with at least a lot of difficulty and no difficulty and 13 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 91%, respectively. At 85%, 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 shares of individuals with access to safely managed drinking water, with lower rates for women with some difficulty and at least a lot of difficulty compared to women with no difficulty. Differences across functional difficulty status are very small (two p.p. or lower) for safely managed sanitation.

Standard of Living

There are significant differences in terms of the shares of individuals with clean fuel, adequate housing, and asset ownership, with lower rates for women with some difficulty and at least a lot of difficulty compared to women with no difficulty. For all indicators, these differences are small, ranging from one to five p.p. Rates of access to electricity are similar for the different functional difficulty groups.

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 29% and 32% compared to 18% of women with no difficulty.

Subjective Wellbeing

Women with at least a lot of functional difficulty are significantly less likely to report feeling very or somewhat happy than women with no difficulty, at 65% and 83%, respectively. At 74%, women with some difficulty also have lower rates of happiness compared to women with no difficulty.

More results for Palestine are available in Results Tables on the DDI website.