HelpAge International is coordinating a project in Africa as part of its global campaign for universal social (non-contributory) pensions.

Currently only five countries in sub-Saharan Africa provide non-contributory pensions: Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia and South Africa.

Social pensions provide significant benefits to older people, their families and communities. They make older people less marginalised and help to boost local local economies.
 
This two-year project is funded by Internationaal Fonds voor Kwetsbare Ouderen – World Granny (IFKO).

Aim

The aim of the project is to make the case for social protection as a core strategy to alleviate poverty among vulnerable groups.

Activities 

The project engages with African governments and civil society to introduce social protection schemes, in particular social pensions. 

Activities include: 

• An analysis of social protection initiatives on behalf of the Government of Rwanda. This will be used to shape future social protection strategies in the country. 
• A regional workshop in Tanzania to develop clear links between social protection and programmes addressing HIV and AIDS. 
• Support to the Senior Citizens' Association of Zambia (SCAZ) to take forward advocacy activities around the draft National Policy on Ageing. 
• Monitoring of the Katete pilot pension scheme in Zambia. This is one of the first pension schemes in sub-Saharan Africa to consider the needs of older people. It will provide critical evidence that can be used to develop social pensions in other parts of Africa. 
• Support to the Grow Up Free from Poverty Coalition to conduct a civil society consultation on social protection in Kenya. 
• Preparations for the Livingstone+2 consultation process to review social protection commitments made by African governments in six countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tunisia and Rwanda. This will lead to recommendations for a new African Union social policy. 

Achievements 

• Key relationships have been established with decision-makers within national governments, the African Union and major donor organisations.
• High-profile champions for policy change have emerged, such as the Ugandan Ministry for Gender, Labour and Social Development.
• HelpAge International’s partners are more confident about engaging with the social protection policy debate. National ageing and social protection policy processes have been significantly influenced.
• Support for the drafting of the Malawi Older Persons Policy has led to what is arguably the strongest social policy document in Africa. The Government of Malawi is now developing an Older Persons Bill. It has also made steps towards implementing a universal social pension scheme for older people.
• Continued advocacy with the Government of Uganda on a proposed pilot social cash transfer scheme has led the Government to consider establishing a social pensions pilot.
• Consultations in Kenya have prepared civil society to engage with the Government to design and develop social protection programmes.
• The contract to manage the complaints and ombudsman functions of DFID’s Kenya Hunger Safety Net Programme has been won by HelpAge International.

Future plans

In the coming year, we will continue the work in Africa and extend the programme to include Latin America and Asia. We will gather evidence from existing social protection schemes and share this with both governments and civil society.