Linking Ageing to Development Agendas in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Approaches

International calls and frameworks for policies on ageing in sub-Saharan African countries, encapsulated in the UN Madrid Plan of Action on Ageing (2002) and the African Union Policy Framework and Plan of Action on Ageing (2003), have resulted in little concrete policy action. The lack of progress calls for critical reflection on the status of policy debates and arguments on ageing in the sub-region. In a context of acute development challenges and resource constraints, the paper links the impasse in policy action to a fundamental lack of clarity about how rationales and approaches for policy on ageing relate to core national development agendas. It then explicates four steps required to elucidate these connections, namely: (a) A full appreciation of key aspects of mainstream development agendas; (b) identification of ambiguities in calls for policy on ageing; (c) pinpointing of key perspectives, arguments and queries for redressing the ambiguities; and (d) addressing ensuing information needs. We argue that advocacy and research on ageing in sub-Saharan Africa need to consider the framework proposed in the paper urgently, in order to advance policy and debate on ageing in the region.