Aging & Social Change: Tenth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

The well-being of older people in sub-Saharan Africa are affected by trends in socioeconomic conditions, changing cultural norms and values, changing levels of formal and informal social support, ongoing poor health conditions, and the AIDS crisis. Evidence and a strong knowledge base of information on the nature and dynamics of poverty, health, social support networks, and the changing roles and responsibilities of older people and their implications are lacking. Deliberate attention should be put on the following agenda items. Finances: To conduct surveys of income, expenditure, and consumption so as to provide a snapshot of household living standards at a given point in time and monitor how they change over time. Health and well-being: Countries still spend a significant fraction of their total health care budgets treating adult illnesses. Family support and social networks: Will the traditional family in sub-Saharan Africa be able to provide older people with the range of support that they need? The changing roles and responsibilities of older: With the AIDS crisis, older people face the double burden of having to replace lost sources of income while supporting additional family members. Social protection schemes: A need to search for alternative formal and informal social welfare programs/ approaches that will address issues of poverty and at lower cost. In the long term, there needs to be political will to give reasonable priority to aging research and also to strengthen local research capacity and use of research outcomes.