HelpAge International

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HelpAge International

• Old Age, Poverty and Exclusion in Bolivia
• Beyond disaggregation?
• Fiona Clark
• Director for Programmes and Policy
• Latin America Regional Development Centre

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Policies for older people

• Bolivia, despite being one of the poorest
  countries has a progressive policy environment
  for older people
• Law 1886 for rights of older people including
  free health care, non-contributory universal
  pension (Bonosol), National Plan on Ageing.
• Bolivian Government preparation for and
  participation in 2WAA, Madrid
• Decentralised government through law for popular
  participation and law of municipalities
• PRSP (2001) recognises older people as vulnerable
  and recommends expansion of health insurance and
  cash transfers that benefit older people.
• But these policies and laws are often not
  reaching the most marginalied or the poorest in
  rural areas.
• Very little information about situation of older
  people in Bolivia

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The data question
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The poverty of older people

• Older people live at higher risk of poverty than
  the overall population
• 63 of older people live in poverty
• 31 of older people do not have any kind of
  income
• 22 of older people are pensioners
• Only 13 of women and 10 of rural older people
  are pensioned.

Older people working in isolated small
communities in rural area of Oruro, on the
altiplano. Most people live off the land and
consume most of what they produce.
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Rural poverty

• In rural areas older peoples poverty reaches
  90.
• Older people in rural areas have only 39 of the
  income of older people in urban areas
• In those areas with highest of older people,
  85-100 incidence of poverty among older people
• Northern Potosi
• One of the poorest areas of Bolivia 10 of the
  population over 60
• Average older people-headed household consists
  of 2 older persons and 7 younger dependents
• Some of these households have monthly incomes as
  low as 4 US dollars. 
• Ca. 70 of the older people in the Potosi
  department live in small one or two-room
  mud-brick houses with dirt floors and 71 of
  these houses do not have electricity.
• Many speak only Quechua
• Source Household surveys from local
• partner CIPE

Older women in Northern Potosi are amongst the
poorest. Local partner CIPE supports them to grow
vegetables to enhance their diets and improve
food security for them and their families.
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Ethnicity, language and social exclusion

• Illiteracy, poor education and ethnic origin
  increase social exclusion among older people
• 43.5 of older people are illiterate (30 men,
  70 women).
• In rural areas 8 out of every 10 older women does
  not read or write.
• 47 of older people do not have any kind of
  education,
• 32 of older people speak only their native
  language (56 in rural areas).
• For 61 of older people a native language is
  their mother tongue
• Their income is a fifth of the income of older
  people who speak Spanish or both languages.

The Awichas - a group of Aymara older people -
work in the city and rural areas of El Alto to
generate income and raise awarenss of the rights
of older people
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Access to services

• 8 of older people have no form identity document
  (70 in rural areas, and 60 of older women)
• At least the same number again, has errors in
  their identity papers
• In 2005 of the 7000 older people attended in the
  socio legal centres supported by HelpAge
  International, 43 of cases attended to related
  to problems of errors in identity documents
• Not having these papers means older people cannot
  claim their right to free health care, their
  state pension and other rights under the law.

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HelpAge International

• Older people contribute to the economic well
  being of their families
• 46 of older people are economically active, 60
  in rural areas.
• 85 of the latter work in the informal
  agriculture sector or petty trading.
• 18 of Bolivian households are headed by an older
  person and 60 of older people are heads of
  households
• 32 of these are headed by an older woman, and
• 9 are made up only of the older couple and
  grandchildren.

The Awichas knit scarves, gloves and children's
toys to sell.
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So what does this tell us?

• Older people face high levels of poverty and
  exclusion, especially in rural areas.
• Older people are working to sustain their
  livelihoods and support other family members,
  especially grandchildren.
• Distance from service providers, language
  barriers, and lack of documentation prohibit
  older people from accessing services, thus
  increasing their poverty and exclusion
• Even if older people know about their rights they
  find it hard to access them due to the urban
  bias.

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Beyond the data

• Policy implications
• Data should be disaggregated by age, gender and
  ethnicity as a matter of course to allow for more
  targeted and informed policy development and
  implementation and to help prioritise government
  funds and international aid, targeting the
  poorest and in the most effective ways.
• Any strategy in Bolivia that aims to alleviate
  poverty must directly and specifically target
  older people and their family (especially in
  rural areas)
• Adult literacy programmes as well as increased
  government services that cater for monolingual
  native language speakers are essential.
• Social protection, support of livelihood
  strategies, documentation and rights education
  are critical for older people to claim their
  entitlements

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Nothing about us, without us
Workshop on older people's rights, rural Bolivia