South African newspaper Business Day Live publishes an article from Dr Isabella Aboderin on Ageing in Africa.
'By 2030, there will be more people globally aged older than 60 than children under 10, and 73% of older people will live in developing countries. While an ageing population reflects successes in public health, education and general economic wellbeing, it remains a critical policy issue across the world.
Three major global reports published this year — by the World Health Organisation, the World Economic Forum and the United Nations Population Fund, together with HelpAge International — highlight both a need for more coherent action to ensure the wellbeing of an expanding older population and the importance of such action for societies’ development.
These two messages affirm the central principles enshrined in the UN’s Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA), the framework set by the international community in 2002 as a blueprint for national responses to ageing. The MIPAA principles were reinforced at the landmark Africa Ageing conference held in Cape Town in October 2012. Convened by the Africa region of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG) and organised locally by the University of Cape Town’s Institute of Ageing in Africa, the conference came on the heels of a step-change in global awareness and debate on population ageing. It brought together 400 researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and civil society and private sector representatives, from 21 countries across Africa and 20 beyond.
Timed to mark 10 years since African governments adopted the MIPAA as well as a parallel African Union framework and plan of action on ageing, the Cape Town conference had three main objectives: to assess progress made in African countries in implementing the two plans; to consolidate knowledge on the realities of old age on the continent; and to set directions for research, policy and practice in coming years.
The discussions brought into focus the demographic projections of ageing in Africa: despite remaining younger than all other continents, Africa will see 13-fold growth in the size of its older population — from 56-million today to 716-million by 2100. This growth will outstrip that of any other world region or any younger age group'.
Isabella Aboderin is a senior research scientist at the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, Kenya, where she leads the programme on ageing and development in sub-Saharan Africa, and senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing at the University of Oxford.
More information:
> Read Business Day Live full article: 'Africa is Ageing - but how prepared is the continent?'
