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Linking Ageing to Development Agendas in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Approaches

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Abstract

International calls and frameworks for policies on ageing in sub-Saharan African countries, encapsulated in the UN Madrid Plan of Action on Ageing (2002) and the African Union Policy Framework and Plan of Action on Ageing (2003), have resulted in little concrete policy action. The lack of progress calls for critical reflection on the status of policy debates and arguments on ageing in the sub-region. In a context of acute development challenges and resource constraints, the paper links the impasse in policy action to a fundamental lack of clarity about how rationales and approaches for policy on ageing relate to core national development agendas. It then explicates four steps required to elucidate these connections, namely: (a) A full appreciation of key aspects of mainstream development agendas; (b) identification of ambiguities in calls for policy on ageing; (c) pinpointing of key perspectives, arguments and queries for redressing the ambiguities; and (d) addressing ensuing information needs. We argue that advocacy and research on ageing in sub-Saharan Africa need to consider the framework proposed in the paper urgently, in order to advance policy and debate on ageing in the region.

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Fig. 1

Notes

  1. In some SSA countries up to 80% of the urban population live in slums. Globally, SSA is estimated to have the highest percentage of slum dwellers. Corresponding figures for Southern, Eastern and South-east Asia are 43%, 37% and 28%, respectively (UN 2007a; UN Habitat 2008).

  2. Though the mentioned social ills are common to many SSA nations, countries vary in the spectrum, extent and depth of the challenges they face, which reflects differences in historical, geographical and governance contexts (Nugent 2004). As regards the HIV/AIDS crisis, the most affected countries are in Southern Africa, with prevalence rates typically exceeding 15% of the adult population. By contrast, all West African nations have estimated prevalence rates below 4%, many even below 2% (UNAIDS/WHO 2007). Armed conflict is most concentrated in countries in the greater Horn of Africa, including Darfur and Southern Sudan, Northern Uganda and the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

  3. It is important to bear in mind the tenuousness of current demographic projections for SSA, which reflects the dearth of quality vital statistics data needed to furnish solid estimates. As Velkoff and Kowal (2007) discuss, fewer than ten SSA countries have vital registration systems that produce usable fertility and mortality data and only two systems (Mauritius and Seychelles) cover at least 80% of the population. Few SSA countries have recent census data, and for those that do, the quality of the data is uneven. Given the lack of robust vital statistics, population projections for SSA are typically derived from Demographic and Health Survey data, which are used to produce estimates of fertility and infant and child mortality. These projections are then matched to model life tables to produce adult mortality estimates.

  4. The lower age cut-off for “older persons” used by the UN is 60 years. This definition of “old age” is becoming increasingly entrenched in the international discourse—intended, among other, for comparative analyses. However, use of a chronological definition of “old age” set at 60 years has severe limitations, and in truth is inappropriate in African settings (Apt 1997; HAI 2002).

  5. Sub-regional differences exist within this broad picture: the rise in the number of older people will be greatest, around 300%, in East, West and Central Africa. Southern Africa, SSA’s richest sub-region, will see a much lower (only two-fold) increase in the numbers of older people. However, the population share of older people in this sub-region, 6.6% at present and projected to rise to 13.3% by 2050, is higher and will be more rapid than in any of the other sub-regions.

  6. Both the MIPAA and the AU Plan support their arguments by drawing on major international human rights covenants including:

    • The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

    • The African Charter of Human and People’s Rights (1981).

    • The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (1976).

    • The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) (1976).

    • The UN Declaration on the Right to Development (1986). (See AU/HAI 2003; UN 2002.)

  7. A prime example of such personal initiative is that of Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade, which lead to the introduction of “Plan Sesame”’—a free health care policy for all Senegalese citizens aged 60 and above (see Aboderin 2008a).

  8. A similar process of review and appraisal of implementation of the AU Plan is planned by the African Union (HAI, personal communication, August 2007).

  9. In Lesotho, pension beneficiaries are estimated to share 65% of their pension income with their children and grandchildren (HAI, personal communication, August 2007).

  10. MDG targets, to be achieved by 2015, are to:

    • Halve the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day and the proportion that suffers from hunger.

    • Attain universal primary education in all countries.

    • Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education and at all levels of education.

    • Reduce mortality by two-thirds among children younger than five years.

    • Reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters.

    • Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, and the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

    • Halve the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, and by 2020, achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.

    • Develop a global partnership for development (UN 2000).

  11. There is, of course, considerable debate on the question of whether the demographic dividend indeed affects economic growth and development (see Birdsall et al. 2003; Lee 2003).

  12. The charter builds on the 2004 NEPAD (New Economic Partnership for African Development) Strategic Framework for Youth Programme (AU 2006a).

  13. The charter requires governments to recognise not only the fundamental rights of youth, but a range of additional social and economic rights, namely to own and inherit property; to social, economic, political and cultural development; to participate in all spheres of society; to a good quality education; to a standard of living adequate for their holistic development; to be free from hunger; to benefit from social security, including social insurance; to gainful employment; and to enjoy the best attainable state of physical, mental and spiritual health (AU 2006a).

  14. Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), with their emphasis on the instrumentality of the free market, in fact led to a deterioration of social conditions for the poor (AU 2004a; Soludo and Mkandawire 1999).

  15. Modernisation theory perspectives, which have effectively been debunked in the scholarly literature, came to dominate thinking on development in the 1970s, fuelled by Rostow’s influential notion of the “Stages of Economic Growth” (Rostow 1960).

  16. To this end, the African Union ratified the African Cultural Charter in 1999 and planned a first pan-African cultural congress on the theme of “Culture, Integration and African Renaissance” (see AU 2006b; OAU 1999).

  17. The MIPAA and the AU Plan acknowledge indirectly that these contributions are “unexpected” and “difficult” for older people.

  18. The only place where MIPAA does consider the question of preference between informal/family and formal intergenerational support is in relation to caregiving to frail older persons —where consideration of formal support is directed primarily to industrialised countries.

  19. A life course perspective recognises that outcomes at later stages of life (e.g. in old age) are shaped not only by present conditions, but exposures, contexts and relationships in earlier life phases (see Elder et al. 2003; Kuh et al. 2003).

  20. Intergenerational equity is recognised as a key element of intergenerational solidarity. More generally, a lack of clarity remains on what “intergenerational solidarity” as a policy goal entails (Aboderin 2008c).

  21. The AU Plan, oddly makes no reference to either perspective.

  22. A focus on equity in health sector policies is part of a wider and intensifying international emphasis on the achievement of equity in health and a connected focus quest to address the social determinants of ill-health (WHO 2008).

  23. The capability approach considers two main dimensions: (1) What people have reason to value doing or being—their valued “functionings,” and (2) people’s abilities, freedom or opportunities to pursue or achieve these functionings—their “capabilities” (see Alkire 2006; Clark 2006).

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Acknowledgements

Research for this article was supported by The Wellcome Trust (Grant No. WT078866MA).

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Correspondence to Isabella Aboderin.

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Aboderin, I., Ferreira, M. Linking Ageing to Development Agendas in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Approaches. Population Ageing 1, 51–73 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-009-9002-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-009-9002-8

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