Women with Disabilities and Their Access to Economic Opportunities: Through the Lens of Gender Budgets

The study is the first of its kind in Sri Lanka to use a gender budgeting framework to examine government plan, policies and budgets and its impact on women with disabilities.

In this study, 400 persons with disabilities covering 4 districts were surveyed on difficulties faced in entering and remaining in the labour force. Evidence shows that they encounter multiple barriers in access to economic opportunities and women with disabilities are twice as disadvantaged. A gender budget study was also conducted to reveal gaps in programmatic and budgetary commitments, despite several policies and legislation promoting the rights of persons with disabilities.

To support this endeavour, the report provides a set of recommendations to create an inclusive, accessible and enabling social environment to ensure women with disabilities enjoy equal rights and opportunities. It calls for a thorough review of the National Action Plan for Disability from a gender perspective to ensure that indicators are gender-responsive and the targets are sex-disaggregated. Further to that, the report recommends that gender-sensitive key performance indicators in Budget Call Circulars should be expanded to include disability dimensions wherever relevant.