Multi-generational relationships have sustained family and community life for centuries. Increasingly, however, older people have to rely on themselves to meet all their needs. In most developing countries, retirement is a luxury few older people can afford. About 40 per cent of people aged over 64 in Africa and about 25 per cent in Asia are still in the labour force, mostly in the agricultural sector. In many countries, a high proportion of older women work in the informal economy, partly because they can more easily combine work with family responsibilities, and partly for reasons related to discrimination encountered in the formal economy.
Among older people, it is women who are most likely to end up in abject poverty. Nearly everywhere in the world, women live longer than men and account for the majority of single-person households. In many countries, public expenditures on social security and health care have been cut, often in the mistaken belief that families and communities will take care of their aged.
The sad fact is that there has been a reversal in inter-generational care.
Older women who have already spent their lifetime looking after other people increasingly cannot expect to be cared for in their twilight years. In many least developed countries, the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has left older women with responsibility for caring for their infected children and, later on, their grandchildren. HIV/AIDS now leads to wider gender inequalities, both at the beginning and at the end of a woman’s life cycle, and also accounts for the increasing feminization of poverty.
Particularly in Africa, older women are finding that their care-giving role is increasingly required by a range of relatives in addition to their children and grandchildren, with little support from government. The “invisible burden” of the care economy is increasingly concentrated on older women.
Poverty amongst the elderly is closely correlated to work in the informal economies of urban and rural areas. Low and fluctuating incomes throughout working life, coupled with poor coverage of social security schemes, means that the likelihood of poverty in old age is high. Health risks, including those resulting from hazardous working conditions, also mean that many people have to live and work with disabilities that impair their earning power. Since a large part of the economic contribution of women is through household and informal economy activity, they benefit less from pension schemes.
Women have a higher chance of losing their partners, and are less likely to remarry than men. Women over 60 who have lost their partners greatly outnumber their male equivalents. In some countries, widows are often denied access to or control over resources. In addition, women’s inheritance rights are poorly established in many societies. In some countries, the deceased husband’s resources, including house, land, equipment and money, may be distributed among other family members. In these countries, widowhood is usually accompanied by a loss of status and therefore means more than the loss of a husband – it also involves the loss of a separate identity.
The increasing number of widows over the next century will challenge societies, not only to provide the necessary immediate support, but also to ensure opportunities to become more self-supportive.
People who have been working in the informal economy are unlikely to have made provision for their income security in old age. This is not a new problem but, as the informal sector has recently been expanding, it will become even more serious in the years ahead. In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, statutory social security personal coverage is estimated at 5 to 10 per cent of the working population and in some cases is decreasing. In Latin America, coverage varies widely from country to country, ranging from 10
to 80 per cent. However, there does seem to be a general stagnation. In South-East and East Asia, coverage varies between 10 and almost 100 per cent. Moreover, in many countries an increasing mortality rate amongst prime-age providers as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is severely weakening already fragile social security systems.
Worldwide, the number of people aged 60 and over is growing faster than all other age groups. Although developing countries still have a relatively young population, the speed at which their populations are ageing is faster than in the industrialized world. There is a pressing need to find effective ways to extend social protection to begin to address poverty in old age as well as other vulnerabilities. Minimum pension schemes are particularly relevant for women workers after a life of low-paid jobs and a heavy and continuing burden of family responsibilities.
To learn more about this author, visit International Labour Organization's Website.
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