Publication: The Journey of Disability Assessment Reform in Saudi Arabia
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Published
2023
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2026-01-07
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Abstract
The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the World Bank (WB) have been closely collaborating on disability-assessment reforms and adapting the Holistic Disability Assessment Approach to Best Fit the KSA context. The collaboration was launched by MHRSD in 2019 and builds on a review of international best practices in designing and implementing disability assessments. The reform process included establishing a multidisciplinary task force to oversee the full reform journey, benchmarking to international best practice, assessing local market gaps, revisiting the medical and Impairment assessment steps with redesign of the Saudi Disabilities Schedules (Baremas), designing disability assessment tools (for adults and children), testing and piloting the new assessment process, upgrading the skills of social workers to become disability assessors and disability supervisors, and gradually migrating from the old to the new disability-assessment model with the integration of new methods to assess the individuals ability to work as a part of the Holistic Assessment, which involved putting in place a monitoring and evaluation framework, a communication strategy, and a grievance-and-redress mechanism. The key objective of the disability assessment is to determine the presence and severity of functional limitations and their impact on life activities. The Saudi Best Fit Disability Assessment. Model was designed to consider multiple data entry points including: gathering socioeconomic and demographic variables to provide information about household composition and characteristics; using a medical diagnosis as well as an assessment of impairments to evaluate the loss of body structure and functions according to an updated set of predetermined disability categories which paved the way for an easier determination of causalities and a clearer definition of the needed support; followed by applying the newly developed functional assessment tool for adults and children based on the International Classification of Functioning to evaluate limitations on activities and restrictions on participation in society; and finally implementing an ability-to-work assessment to help persons with disabilities who are able to work to join the labor market.
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“Zeitoun, Nahla; Pankratova, Ekaterina; Ismaeel, Dina Omar; Abdelazim, Nazly Amr; Ragab, Noha Adel; Alabdulkarim, Aseel; Alotaiby, Mohammed; Al-Jorais, Sultan. 2023. The Journey of Disability Assessment Reform in Saudi Arabia. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/44135 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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