Preparations are underway for Rwanda's first digital census of people with disability, whose results will be used to establish a national registry, The New Times has learnt.
The traditional data collection with pen and paper made it impossible to have a national database of disabilities, their causes and the challenges disabled people face, officials said.
The census will cost $1 million (over Rwf1 billion), and 60 per cent of it will be spent on data collection, according to the National Council of Persons with Disability (NCPD).
The pilot census, which began three weeks ago in Gasabo District, will be completed in September and the nationwide data collection could begin in October, the council said.
After the census, the government will roll out a Disability Management Information System (DMIS) - the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the officials. The DMIS will also facilitate researchers in the disability sector.
Although data on disabilities in Rwanda is collected occasionally, the NCPD says, there is a gap of nationwide reliable, disaggregated data, which makes it difficult for evidence-based planning and advocacy of inclusive policies.
"Currently, we do not have comprehensive information about disabilities in Rwanda; we only rely on data collected ten years ago," Emmanuel Ndayisaba, the NCPD's Executive Secretary, said.
"But in the upcoming data collection exercise, we will be able to get the information from house to house. And we call upon the people with disabilities and their families to facilitate enumerators."
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Ndayisaba said they are currently in talks with partners, who will help cover the census budget. About Rwf360 million has already been spent on the preparations, which include the purchase of tablets for data collection and training of the enumerators.
"When a country has data, what gets measured gets done," said Julianna Lindsey, the UNICEF representative in Rwanda.
"And since Rwanda will have this data, it can then use it to make sure that all disabled people, including children, have access to the services they need; and the government can use that information to prioritise and make sure that support goes to the area that has more people with special needs."
In 2012, there were 446,000 people with disabilities in Rwanda, according to figures from the fourth population census by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR). The current number could be around one million people, according to the council's estimates.
The on-going fifth national population census will collect data on people with disabilities, but according to Ndayisaba, the NISR's questions are generic.
"For us to have an effective database, we need thorough data collection on the living conditions of the people with disabilities," he said.
"Our questionnaires are set according to the Washington Group Questions, which focus less on the disability itself and more about the challenges and barriers that people with disabilities face. And these challenges differ depending on the living conditions."
