Social transfers: a critical strategy to meet the MDGs

Non-contributory pensions enable poor older people to provide for their future and the future of their families. Alongside other social transfer schemes, pensions are now being seen to help reduce old age and intergenerational poverty, and have improved income security, access to education, health status and gender equality across other age groups.

This brief outlines the role that social transfers have to play in providing an inclusive framework to reduce intergenerational and chronic poverty.  The authors argue that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in common with many development, policies and programmes, focus effort on children, young people and the “working-age” poor.  However, they fail to recognise and support the social, economic and caring needs and contributions of older people.

The paper highlights HelpAge's call on the international community to invest in government-led social transfer schemes in order to accelerate progress to achieve the MDGs.

HelpAge calls for:

• the explicit recognition in the September 2010 UN High-level Plenary Meeting and outcome document of the role which non-contributory social transfers can play in accelerating progress towards the MDGs
• multilateral and bilateral development agencies to commit to working in partnership with national governments and invest in the development or scaling up of long-term, sustainable social transfer schemes
• disaggregated monitoring of aid budgets and national government budgets to track the impact of social transfers
• the UN MDG database to recognise the need for age disaggregated data to ensure the effective monitoring and evaluation of the MDGs for all age groups