Humanitarian action and older persons: an essential brief for humanitarian actors

This advocacy paper on humanitarian assistance and older persons has been developed by a wide range of humanitarian actors. The authors state why there is a need to pay attention to older persons in emergencies and argue that recent events have brought to light the disproportionate impact of natural disasters and crises on older people:

IASC Recommendations include:

1. Increase the awareness of policy-makers, humanitarian partners (such as Cluster members and Cluster Leads), and donors on:

• the global growth in the numbers of the old and very old
• its impact on emergency- and disaster-affected populations, and the need to include older persons as both vulnerable and resource groups into all aspects of risk reduction and emergency preparedness, relief and recovery processes
  

2. Sensitise the emergency preparedness, response and recovery systems at international, national and local levels to the cross-cutting issue of age, by:

• incorporating into training events targeted at humanitarian managers and coordinators a specific module focusing on the needs and opportunities that are associated with an ageing population
• integrating these into the guidelines and technical resources made available to the emergency and humanitarian community

3. Introduce more effective data collection processes to ensure that registration, needs assessments and morbidity and mortality figures are collected and disaggregated by age and sex to allow for better understanding of, and response to, the needs of older persons.

4. In the design and implementation of emergency response and recovery programmes, special attention and emphasis should be put on:

• active consultation and engagement of older persons in decision-making, programme development, and implementation
• caring for the needs of older persons in designing health and nutrition programmes (access to services, treatment of chronic diseases, specific food rations, etc.)
• income generation and repatriation programmes should take into account the specific needs of older persons both to cater for themselves as well as to support survivors such as children and disabled persons