3. Fewer than one in five older persons in
sub-Saharan Africa receives an old-age pension
Retirement pensions or similar programmes for income
support at older ages are critical to the social protection
of older persons. According to recent data, just under
17 per cent of people of pensionable age in
sub-Saharan Africa received any pension, meaning that
the overwhelming majority of older persons had to rely
instead on their own labour earnings or savings,
assistance from relatives, or charity for support. Owing
to the prevalence of informal employment in the region,
only a small minority — 8.4 per cent — of the 2014
labour force contributed to pension insurance,
indicating that low pension coverage could be
perpetuated as current workers reach retirement age.2
4. The labour force participation of older persons
in Africa is the highest in the world
In most of sub-Saharan Africa, retirement is a privilege
extended primarily to the minority of persons who work
in the formal economy and thus have access to
contributory pension programmes.2
Non-contributory
pensions can effectively reduce poverty in old age but
are not yet implemented in most countries of the region.
As a result, a majority of older persons in sub-Saharan
Africa have no choice but to continue to work as long
as they are physically able.
Among those aged 65 years or over in Africa, 52 per
cent of men and 33 per cent of women were active in
the labour force in 2015. By comparison, in Latin
America and the Caribbean, 38 per cent of older men
and 17 per cent of older women were working, and in
Europe, only 10 per cent of older men and 6 per cent of
older women were working.3
In general, countries with relatively low rates of pension
coverage tend to have high levels of labour force
participation among older persons. In Zimbabwe, for
example, where less than 10 per cent of people of
pensionable age received any pension, 75 per cent of
men and 65 per cent of women aged 65 or over were
active in the labour force. By contrast, more than 92
per cent of older persons in South Africa received a
pension and their participation in the labour force was
relatively rare, with only 9 per cent of men and 3 per
cent of women aged 65 years or over who were
working in 2015.3
In addition to their labour force participation, older men
and women in sub-Saharan Africa are making other
vital contributions to their families and communities.
Many older persons whose adult children have
migrated in search of work, or who have died as a
result of HIV/AIDS, are the main care-providers for their
grandchildren. In Zimbabwe and Namibia, an
estimated 60 per cent of orphaned children were being
cared for by their grandmothers.4
5. Health systems in sub-Saharan Africa are
confronted with a growing burden of illness due
to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that are
associated with old age
Communicable diseases continue to account for more
than half of all deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, but
non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular
disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory
diseases, cause more than half of the total burden of
disability in the region.5
Since the prevalence of NCDrelated
disability tends to increase with age, a growing
population of older persons implies an increase in the
demand on health systems for the prevention and
treatment of NCDs and their associated complications.
6. Ensuring the well-being of the growing
population of older persons in sub-Saharan
Africa will be essential for achieving the
Sustainable Development Goals
Meeting the needs of the growing numbers of older
persons in sub-Saharan Africa will be critical for
achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, in
particular, the goals on eradicating poverty, ensuring
healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages,
achieving gender equality, ensuring full and productive
employment and decent work for all, reducing
inequalities between and within countries, and making
human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and
sustainable.
7. More data are needed to understand the
status and needs of older persons in Africa
In 2002, African governments formally adopted the
African Union Policy Framework and Plan of Action on
Ageing (AU Plan), which built upon the Madrid
International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA). The
AU Plan committed the signatory member states to
develop and implement policies on ageing that are
integral to national development and poverty reduction.
However, efforts to monitor the implementation of
MIPAA and the AU Plan in Africa have been limited in
part by the dearth of data on older persons in the
region. More and better data and statistics on older
persons in Africa are urgently needed in order to
ensure continued progress in the implementation of
MIPAA and the AU Plan, as well as the 2030 Agenda.