Abstract
The paper discusses the bi-directional relationship between poverty and disability for people in low-income countries, based on qualitative studies in Yemen and Kenya. The relationship between disability and poverty is bi-directional and essential. Little research has been carried out into analysing the mechanisms behind the relationship, and in particular in low-income countries. There is sufficient knowledge to conclude that people with disabilities are at risk of being and remaining among the poorest. Exclusion mechanisms are numerous and influence most aspect of the individual’s life. People with disabilities seek to be independent and to manage on their own, a strategy of surviving that seems to be encouraged by the DPOs, but those who manage almost as a rule have a supportive family to rely on. Through this field work we have seen the necessity of a family perspective and a focus on “disabled households” in order to understand the complexity of the situation for people with disabilities, instead of focusing only on the disabled individual. Consideration should be made on how to make such households viable. In doing this one should focus political and economical factors both for the family and for the neighbourhood within which the family exist.
