News

The World Population Programme, hosted by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria, has featured a OIA guest seminar by Jaco Hoffmann on 18th October 2010.

Hoffmann’s workshop focused on Poverty, AIDS and Intergenerational Relationships in (South) Africa, in particular on the pivotal role of older women in the context of entrenched inequality and pervasive poverty.

‘An estimated 1.2 million so-called HIV/AIDS orphaned children, of whom around 60% reside in grandparent-headed households exacerbate this and obviously place on the research and policy agenda the continuous asymmetrical dependency and needs of younger generations on older generations. Although their contributions are increasingly recognised, current explanations of the dynamics within these multi-generational networks lack a deeper understanding of their complex and ambiguous nature’.

Drawing on ethnographic and survey data from South Africa, the seminar explored the meanings these older respondents attach to their intergenerational experiences and argued for a more nuanced analysis.

Jaco Hoffmann  directs the OIA African Research on Ageing Network (AFRAN), which brings together African and international institutions to develop and expand African research and training capacity on ageing. He is president of the South African Gerontological Association (SAGA) and editorial board member of the “International Journal of Intergenerational Relationships: programs, policy, and research”. His research interests include intergenerational relationships, poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa.