According to the World Report on Disability, issued jointly by the World Bank and the WHO in 2011, Ethiopia had 15 million people with disabilities, accounting for 17.6% of the total population at the time. According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, 95 percent of people with disabilities in the country live in poverty, with the vast majority of them living in rural areas with limited access to basic amenities and little opportunities for rehabilitative or support services. Due to stigma among parents and educators, inaccessibility, strict teaching procedures, inadequately educated teachers, and a lack of appropriate learning tools, just 3% of Ethiopia’s estimated 2.4 to 4.8 million children with disabilities attend school, according to Handicap International. In Ethiopia, there are no credible, up-to-date national statistics on disability. Only 805,492 people with disabilities were detected in Ethiopia’s most recent national census in 2007, accounting for only 1.09 percent of the country’s total population of 86 million people. Because of the way the census questions were formulated, a lack of disability related knowledge among those involved in census data gathering and analysis, and the use of a narrow definition of disability, commentators in the disability arena both inside and outside Ethiopia generally regard the census data as skewed by under-reporting. The frameworks of law and policy Ethiopia’s government has taken a number of legislative and policy initiatives that demonstrate its commitment to advancing the rights of disabled people. In terms of international relations.
