Ageing and Poverty in Africa and the Role of Social Pensions

In many low income African countries, three factors are placing an undue burden on the elderly. First, the burden on the elderly has enormously increased with the increase in mortality of prime age adults due to HIV AIDS pandemic and regional conflicts. Second, the traditional safety net of the ext...

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Main Authors:	Kakwani, Nanak, Subbarao, Kalanidhi
Format:	Other Poverty Study
Language:	English en_US
Published:	Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:	ABSOLUTE VALUE ADULTS AFFORDABILITY AGED AVERAGE INCOME AVERAGE POVERTY CATEGORICAL TARGETING CHARACTER CHILDREN IN POVERTY COPING STRATEGIES CULTURAL PRACTICES DATA SETS DEATH RATE DEVELOPING WORLD DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS DEVELOPMENT NETWORK DYING ELDERLY ELDERLY LIVING ELIGIBILITY EXTENDED FAMILIES FAMILIES FAMILY SUPPORT GDP HEAD COUNT RATIO HEAD-COUNT RATIO HEALTH CARE HIV/AIDS HOUSEHOLD DATA HOUSEHOLD SURVEY HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HOUSEHOLD TYPES HOUSING HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INCIDENCE OF POVERTY INCOME COUNTRIES INCOME SHORTFALL INDIVIDUAL POVERTY INFANTS INFORMAL ECONOMY INFORMAL SECTORS INTERVENTION LIFE EXPECTANCY LIVING CONDITIONS LIVING STANDARDS LOCAL CURRENCY LOW INCOME MALARIA MIDDLE AGE MIGRATION MORTALITY MOTIVATION NATIONAL AVERAGE NATIONAL LEVEL NATIONAL POVERTY NATIONAL POVERTY LINE NATIONAL POVERTY LINES PARENTS PER CAPITA INCOMES POOR POOR HOUSEHOLDS POPULATION SHARE POVERTY ASSESSMENTS POVERTY GAP POVERTY INCIDENCE POVERTY LINE POVERTY MEASURES POVERTY RATIO POVERTY REDUCTION POVERTY STATUS PRIMARY SCHOOL PUBLIC EXPENDITURE PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLIC SPENDING RELATIVE RANKING RISK GROUPS RURAL AREAS RURAL POVERTY SAFETY SAFETY NET SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION SOCIAL ASSISTANCE SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL SECURITY TRADE OFFS URBAN AREAS URBAN POVERTY VULNERABLE GROUPS YOUNG ADULTS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/03/5773986/ageing-poverty-africa-role-social-pensions http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8535

id	okr-10986-8535
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-85352021-04-23T14:02:39Z Ageing and Poverty in Africa and the Role of Social Pensions Kakwani, Nanak Subbarao, Kalanidhi ABSOLUTE VALUE ADULTS AFFORDABILITY AGED AVERAGE INCOME AVERAGE POVERTY CATEGORICAL TARGETING CHARACTER CHILDREN IN POVERTY COPING STRATEGIES CULTURAL PRACTICES DATA SETS DEATH RATE DEVELOPING WORLD DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS DEVELOPMENT NETWORK DYING ELDERLY ELDERLY LIVING ELIGIBILITY EXTENDED FAMILIES FAMILIES FAMILY SUPPORT GDP HEAD COUNT RATIO HEAD-COUNT RATIO HEALTH CARE HIV/AIDS HOUSEHOLD DATA HOUSEHOLD SURVEY HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HOUSEHOLD TYPES HOUSING HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INCIDENCE OF POVERTY INCOME COUNTRIES INCOME SHORTFALL INDIVIDUAL POVERTY INFANTS INFORMAL ECONOMY INFORMAL SECTORS INTERVENTION LIFE EXPECTANCY LIVING CONDITIONS LIVING STANDARDS LOCAL CURRENCY LOW INCOME MALARIA MIDDLE AGE MIGRATION MORTALITY MOTIVATION NATIONAL AVERAGE NATIONAL LEVEL NATIONAL POVERTY NATIONAL POVERTY LINE NATIONAL POVERTY LINES PARENTS PER CAPITA INCOMES POOR POOR HOUSEHOLDS POPULATION SHARE POVERTY ASSESSMENTS POVERTY GAP POVERTY INCIDENCE POVERTY LINE POVERTY MEASURES POVERTY RATIO POVERTY REDUCTION POVERTY STATUS PRIMARY SCHOOL PUBLIC EXPENDITURE PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLIC SPENDING RELATIVE RANKING RISK GROUPS RURAL AREAS RURAL POVERTY SAFETY SAFETY NET SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION SOCIAL ASSISTANCE SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL SECURITY TRADE OFFS URBAN AREAS URBAN POVERTY VULNERABLE GROUPS YOUNG ADULTS In many low income African countries, three factors are placing an undue burden on the elderly. First, the burden on the elderly has enormously increased with the increase in mortality of prime age adults due to HIV AIDS pandemic and regional conflicts. Second, the traditional safety net of the extended family has become ineffective and unreliable for the elderly. Third, in a few countries, the elderly are called upon to shoulder the responsibility of the family as they became the principal breadwinners and caregivers for young children. While a number of studies have examined the welfare consequences of these developments on children, few studies have systematically analyzed the poverty situation among the elderly (relative to other groups) in low income countries Africa, and the role of social pensions. This study aims to fill this gap. Drawing on household survey information, the study profiles the elderly for 15 African countries which include both East and West African countries, and countries with a high and low prevalence of HIV-AIDS pandemic. The findings show much heterogeneity across countries with respect to the proportion of the elderly population, the living arrangements and the composition of households, and household headship. The variations in household types and living arrangements presumably reflect the variations in, and changing character of, the traditional family support system and household coping strategies in the wake of covariate shocks and the HIV-AIDS pandemic. However, the proportion of the single elderly is still very small in most countries. A household type "elderly and children" or what is known as "skipped generation household" has emerged as an important structure in some countries. In addition, "households headed by the elderly" has also emerged as a significant household type in several countries. The analysis shows that the poverty situation, and especially the poverty gap ratio, for the household types the elderly only, the elderly with children and the elderly-headed households is much higher than the average in several countries and the differences are statistically significant. 2012-06-20T17:44:11Z 2012-06-20T17:44:11Z 2005-03 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/03/5773986/ageing-poverty-africa-role-social-pensions http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8535 English en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Other Poverty Study Economic & Sector Work Africa Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	ABSOLUTE VALUE ADULTS AFFORDABILITY AGED AVERAGE INCOME AVERAGE POVERTY CATEGORICAL TARGETING CHARACTER CHILDREN IN POVERTY COPING STRATEGIES CULTURAL PRACTICES DATA SETS DEATH RATE DEVELOPING WORLD DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS DEVELOPMENT NETWORK DYING ELDERLY ELDERLY LIVING ELIGIBILITY EXTENDED FAMILIES FAMILIES FAMILY SUPPORT GDP HEAD COUNT RATIO HEAD-COUNT RATIO HEALTH CARE HIV/AIDS HOUSEHOLD DATA HOUSEHOLD SURVEY HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HOUSEHOLD TYPES HOUSING HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INCIDENCE OF POVERTY INCOME COUNTRIES INCOME SHORTFALL INDIVIDUAL POVERTY INFANTS INFORMAL ECONOMY INFORMAL SECTORS INTERVENTION LIFE EXPECTANCY LIVING CONDITIONS LIVING STANDARDS LOCAL CURRENCY LOW INCOME MALARIA MIDDLE AGE MIGRATION MORTALITY MOTIVATION NATIONAL AVERAGE NATIONAL LEVEL NATIONAL POVERTY NATIONAL POVERTY LINE NATIONAL POVERTY LINES PARENTS PER CAPITA INCOMES POOR POOR HOUSEHOLDS POPULATION SHARE POVERTY ASSESSMENTS POVERTY GAP POVERTY INCIDENCE POVERTY LINE POVERTY MEASURES POVERTY RATIO POVERTY REDUCTION POVERTY STATUS PRIMARY SCHOOL PUBLIC EXPENDITURE PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLIC SPENDING RELATIVE RANKING RISK GROUPS RURAL AREAS RURAL POVERTY SAFETY SAFETY NET SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION SOCIAL ASSISTANCE SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL SECURITY TRADE OFFS URBAN AREAS URBAN POVERTY VULNERABLE GROUPS YOUNG ADULTS
spellingShingle	ABSOLUTE VALUE ADULTS AFFORDABILITY AGED AVERAGE INCOME AVERAGE POVERTY CATEGORICAL TARGETING CHARACTER CHILDREN IN POVERTY COPING STRATEGIES CULTURAL PRACTICES DATA SETS DEATH RATE DEVELOPING WORLD DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS DEVELOPMENT NETWORK DYING ELDERLY ELDERLY LIVING ELIGIBILITY EXTENDED FAMILIES FAMILIES FAMILY SUPPORT GDP HEAD COUNT RATIO HEAD-COUNT RATIO HEALTH CARE HIV/AIDS HOUSEHOLD DATA HOUSEHOLD SURVEY HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HOUSEHOLD TYPES HOUSING HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INCIDENCE OF POVERTY INCOME COUNTRIES INCOME SHORTFALL INDIVIDUAL POVERTY INFANTS INFORMAL ECONOMY INFORMAL SECTORS INTERVENTION LIFE EXPECTANCY LIVING CONDITIONS LIVING STANDARDS LOCAL CURRENCY LOW INCOME MALARIA MIDDLE AGE MIGRATION MORTALITY MOTIVATION NATIONAL AVERAGE NATIONAL LEVEL NATIONAL POVERTY NATIONAL POVERTY LINE NATIONAL POVERTY LINES PARENTS PER CAPITA INCOMES POOR POOR HOUSEHOLDS POPULATION SHARE POVERTY ASSESSMENTS POVERTY GAP POVERTY INCIDENCE POVERTY LINE POVERTY MEASURES POVERTY RATIO POVERTY REDUCTION POVERTY STATUS PRIMARY SCHOOL PUBLIC EXPENDITURE PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLIC SPENDING RELATIVE RANKING RISK GROUPS RURAL AREAS RURAL POVERTY SAFETY SAFETY NET SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION SOCIAL ASSISTANCE SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL SECURITY TRADE OFFS URBAN AREAS URBAN POVERTY VULNERABLE GROUPS YOUNG ADULTS Kakwani, Nanak Subbarao, Kalanidhi Ageing and Poverty in Africa and the Role of Social Pensions
geographic_facet	Africa Africa
description	In many low income African countries, three factors are placing an undue burden on the elderly. First, the burden on the elderly has enormously increased with the increase in mortality of prime age adults due to HIV AIDS pandemic and regional conflicts. Second, the traditional safety net of the extended family has become ineffective and unreliable for the elderly. Third, in a few countries, the elderly are called upon to shoulder the responsibility of the family as they became the principal breadwinners and caregivers for young children. While a number of studies have examined the welfare consequences of these developments on children, few studies have systematically analyzed the poverty situation among the elderly (relative to other groups) in low income countries Africa, and the role of social pensions. This study aims to fill this gap. Drawing on household survey information, the study profiles the elderly for 15 African countries which include both East and West African countries, and countries with a high and low prevalence of HIV-AIDS pandemic. The findings show much heterogeneity across countries with respect to the proportion of the elderly population, the living arrangements and the composition of households, and household headship. The variations in household types and living arrangements presumably reflect the variations in, and changing character of, the traditional family support system and household coping strategies in the wake of covariate shocks and the HIV-AIDS pandemic. However, the proportion of the single elderly is still very small in most countries. A household type "elderly and children" or what is known as "skipped generation household" has emerged as an important structure in some countries. In addition, "households headed by the elderly" has also emerged as a significant household type in several countries. The analysis shows that the poverty situation, and especially the poverty gap ratio, for the household types the elderly only, the elderly with children and the elderly-headed households is much higher than the average in several countries and the differences are statistically significant.
format	Economic & Sector Work :: Other Poverty Study
author	Kakwani, Nanak Subbarao, Kalanidhi
author_facet	Kakwani, Nanak Subbarao, Kalanidhi
author_sort	Kakwani, Nanak
title	Ageing and Poverty in Africa and the Role of Social Pensions
title_short	Ageing and Poverty in Africa and the Role of Social Pensions
title_full	Ageing and Poverty in Africa and the Role of Social Pensions
title_fullStr	Ageing and Poverty in Africa and the Role of Social Pensions
title_full_unstemmed	Ageing and Poverty in Africa and the Role of Social Pensions
title_sort	ageing and poverty in africa and the role of social pensions
publisher	Washington, DC
publishDate	2012
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/03/5773986/ageing-poverty-africa-role-social-pensions http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8535
_version_	1764404894806048768

Ageing and Poverty in Africa and the Role of Social Pensions

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