MDGs must target poorest say older people

This paper argues that if the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are to deliver fair and equitable development that reaches the very poorest, an explicitly rights-based approach to poverty reduction is needed, in addition to greater financial commitment.

It states that the elderly are are less likely to benefit from interventions because:

• they are often the most difficult to reach as they live in rural areas, face literacy and language difficulties, and experience physical constraints to participating in conventional development activities
• they are discriminated against on the basis of age and gender, are deemed economically invalid and denied their right to services
• while the MDGs have specific targets on children and youth they are silent on issues of age, ethnicity and disability. As a result, these invisible groups are unlikely to benefit from the global effort to eradicate poverty.

The MDGs can make a difference to the lives of many millions of poor people around the world. To do so and to deliver on a sound human rights agenda for equitable development for all, development interventions to achieve the MDGs should:

• acknowledge older women and men as effective agents of change and contributors to the aims and aspirations of the Millennium Development Goals
• ensure poverty analysis is disaggregated by gender and age as well as ethnicity and disability
• make gender equality a reality for women and men of all ages and throughout the life cycle, through lifelong education and employment rights for women
• ensure an equitable and rights-based approach to HIV/AIDS which gives the over-50s equal access to testing, counselling and treatment and acknowledges and alleviates the burden of care on women of all ages
• encompass the principles of equity, participation, intergenerational development and effective aid
• incorporate social protection measures, including social pensions into poverty reduction strategies.