Poverty and the elderly in national poverty reduction strategies in Sub-Saharan countries

Benoit M.B. Kalasa, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
Fatma Mrisho, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

The course of population ageing is now worldwide as result of the changing age structure. In Africa, in the coming 40 years, only the following countries will see the proportion of the population aged 60 and above, rise above 10 %. The needs of older persons must be assessed in a wider social context of rapidly changing societies. In the context of PRSP, where ageing is identified as a structural cause of vulnerability/poverty, it is important that governments recognize the economic and non-economic contributions of both older men and women. In this Paper, existing I-PRSPs and PRSPs documents would be reviewed to assess the extent to which specific interventions targeting old persons are planned and resources allocated for, as an explicit strategy for fighting poverty. This is very important in the emerging context of elderly becoming more and caregivers of HIV/AIDS orphans.