Country Brief Read Me File

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Country briefs are prepared using the methods described in the report and in the method briefs. The results presented in the profiles have the same data and measurement limitations as explained in the report. It is advised that the reader first becomes familiar with the data and methods before reading the profiles.

What A Country Brief Tells And Does Not Tell

The briefs provide basic information on the situation of women with functional difficulties in the countries included in the study.  The country briefs include only some of the results presented in the main text of the Disability Data Report and in the Results Tables. Results Tables cover 32 indicators, while country briefs only have 11 indicators.

The country briefs alone cannot be used to inform the design of policies and programs or draw conclusions about their performance. The design of disability policies and programs and the assessment of their performance require more empirical evidence and in-depth analyses.

What Is In A Country Brief?

Profiles follow the same format, with data on indicators (Table 1). The text describes the results in the tables. Country briefs do not discuss the results in light of national survey/census reports or other studies. In fact, estimates in the country briefs may differ from those in survey/census reports, as the analysis may be done differently. It may report results on individuals who report at least a lot of difficulty while country briefs also report on persons who have some difficulty.

Tables present estimates. Standard errors are not included for conciseness.

For each country, Table 1 compares 11 indicators for women with no difficulty, some difficulty and at least a lot of difficulty. For Montenegro only, Table 1 compares indicators between women with and without any functional difficulty due to small sample sizes when separating women with some difficulty and at least a lot of difficulty. Estimates are in percentages, except in the columns that report differences. The difference between women with no functional difficulty and persons with some or at least a lot of difficulty is expressed in percentage points. *, **, and *** indicate that the difference is statistically significant at the 10%, 5%, and 1% levels, respectively, and NS stands for not significant.

The sign of the difference matters. For indicators that reflect deprivations (multidimensional poverty, less than primary school), a negative difference between persons with no difficulty and persons with any difficulty reflects that the indicator is larger for persons with difficulties and indicates that persons with functional difficulties are worse off than persons with no difficulty. For indicators that reflect achievements (e.g. water, asset ownership), a positive difference between persons with no difficulty and persons with any difficulty indicates that persons with functional difficulties are worse off than persons with no difficulty.

The descriptive text around Table 1 tries to comment on the value of an indicator for different functional status groups and/or on the magnitude of the difference across groups as well as its statistical significance.