An Assessment of Association between Financial Constraint and Protection Gap With Respect to International Health Assistance among Internally Displaced Persons

Irfan Ud Din, Asad Ullah, Mussawar Shah

Abstract
The major objective of this research study was to study the present state of health related
protection gap among internally displaced persons (IDPs). A sample size of 234
respondents was selected through lottery method of simple random sampling to
ascertain respondent’s attitudes towards phenomena under investigation through Likert
scale as measurement tool. Both uni-variate and bi-variate analyses were carried out to
determine outcomes. Health-related protection gap (dependent variable) as associated
with financial constraint (independent variable) was assessed by using Chi-square test.
The study established that health-related protection gap had a highly significant
association with access to employment, getting assistance from non-governmental
organizations, IDPs lagged behind non-displaced persons in economic development,
household monthly income, NGOs financial assistance, low income as a cause of low
quality of life, lack of income as barrier to maintain good health and weak health
condition produce reluctance in income generation. It was concluded that poor economic
status and unemployment prevailed in IDPs camps. The displaced people depended on
charities or assistance from government or NGOs. Such assistance always fell short of the
needs of people therefore; IDPs were prone to health hazard. The health related
protection gap, therefore was high for financially needy people. Study proposes and
recommends integration of efforts by governmental organization, NGOs and local
communities in providing of health and financial support to such deprived groups.
Keywords: Financial constraint, Health-related protection gap, internally displaced
persons