In recent years, HelpAge International has been gathering evidence of the effects of HIV on older people. We have done this through our own programmes and research and by working with other institutions to gather statistics on older people and HIV.

Current research

Improving data collection

In 2006 HelpAge International researched the availability of data on households affected by AIDS.

The research concluded that reducing poverty by supporting caregivers, people living with HIV and vulnerable children requires that national data be collected and disaggregated by age, sex and socio-economic status (SES). This is particularly true of nations with a high prevalence of HIV.

The research report Counting Carers identifies the limits of existing data and makes recommendations for improving data collection for better policy and programme responses.

Caregiving in South Africa, Mozambique and Sudan

In 2005 AIDS: the frontline by HelpAge International says older carers are the backbone of AIDS care. The report examines how older carers of people living with AIDS and orphaned children can be supported.

This research was conducted in extremely poor communities in Mozambique, South Africa and Sudan. It examined the impact of HIV and AIDS over the last ten years through the eyes of older people.

Through its programme work in 11 countries in Africa, HelpAge International estimates that half of all older people in severely affected areas now care for adult children living with HIV and/or orphaned children.

Older people are the backbone of AIDS care, caring for dying sons and daughters and simultaneously for the grandchildren these parents leave behind.

The research describes how older people and their organisations have coped so far. It also draws out lessons for the future, in the context of continued increases of the number of those affected by AIDS.

Collaboration with UNICEF on older carers

In 2004, HelpAge International collaborated with UNICEF to analyse the extent of older people caring for orphaned children in Africa.

As a result, UNICEF’s new Guide for monitoring and evaluation of the national response for children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV (1.5MB pdf) and AIDS recommends that information is collected on the:

• age and gender of the head of household
• age and gender of the the orphan's primary caregiver,
• the relationship of the primary care giver to the orphan.

Cash transfers for children and carers affected by AIDS

HelpAge International, the Institute for Development and Save the Children UK, with funding from UNICEF, have been working together to study cash-transfer programmes in East and Southern Africa.

The study Making Cash Count gathers information on the implementation, cost and delivery of cash-transfer schemes, including social pensions.

It examines how such schemes can best support children affected by AIDS. The aim of the study is to provide UNICEF and other donor agencies with key learning from a range of examples and to act as a guide for programming social protection.

Contact the research and policy team.

Future research

HelpAge International is interested in carrying out further research on the impact of HIV and AIDS on older people, guided by the following questions:

• Who are the primary carers (age, sex and relationship) of people living with AIDS and of children affected by HIV?

• What is the role of older people who care for people living with AIDS and children affected by AIDS? How do older people and children support each other? What national and community-based social protection schemes support mixed-generation households and how do they work best?

• What are the responses to people over 50 who are living with HIV? Are they being counted in prevalence and treatment statistics?
• What is the impact of AIDS on livelihoods in households headed by older people? What are the cash costs and opportunity costs of caring for people living with AIDS and children affected by AIDS? What are the longer-term effects of these costs?