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Addressing the Plight of the Older People
By Ephraim Gathaiya, Kenya Times
Kenya
March 27, 2006
In specific, can older people do so? This is a question that the Older Citizens Monitoring programme (OCM) seeks to answer. Assessment all over the country has shown that a majority of the poor in Kenya do not participate in policy discussions as well as involve themselves in development decision-making.
Assessment has continued to reveal that this situation is not static, with awareness creation and sensitization, poor people can start advocating their rights within their own community. The OCM project traces its origins from the 2002 UN Second World Assembly on Ageing in Madrid, Spain, and the resultant Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing.
Governments committed themselves to developing strategies that will address the plight of older people in their own countries, Kenya included.
But over time, questions begun to arise as to whether the pact was really being translated into tangible actions by way of putting in place structures that would make it possible for older persons to benefit. In Kenya, no structure had been put in place, which led to the initial question, can poor older persons engage the government in discussion on policies affecting their lives?
The OCM project in Kenya was initiated in 2003 the aim of ensuring that the commitments made in the Second World Assembly on Ageing are translated into policies and programmes that benefit disadvantaged older persons. This entailed empowering older persons through awareness creation on their rights, who in turn advocate those rights using locally gathered evidence. An audit was conducted to identify key stake holders and networks in the country as well as appropriate processes, which will enable older persons to participate in monitoring public policy.
The audit analyzed the policy environment in Kenya as well sa reviewed existing literature for information and research on older person. The channels of communication appropriate to older persons were identified and there was a development of indicators and bench marks which would support older persons in the monitoring process.
A two-year pilot phase was undertaken in Ngando and Misyani , which entailed trainings , seminars and workshops to sensitize the older persons and the local communities on policy formulations and the rights of older persons. Access to health was identified, as a priority issue by older persons, which they claimed, was an appropriate service delivery component of the government that they could monitor.
One major setback of the OCM project is that its implementation is going on against a backdrop of no existing policy on older people. Most of the policy instruments that would justify the monitoring of service delivery by the older persons are in draft form e.g. the Draft National policy on Older Persons, the Draft constitution 2004 and many others.
The national policy on older and ageing persons is now a sessional paper No.6 of the government and awaits debate in parliament. But the older persons are using the (OCM) project to push for changes in service delivery at their local level. The changes being sought are improvements in accessibility of health services, where they claim that they are discriminated against. In Misyani, older men and women are being turned away from the local district hospital by being told that they are not sick. It is just old age.
Some are told that they are wasting medicine, which would be more useful on younger people. In Ngando, the initial cost of consultation or even buying drugs blocks older people from accessing medical care. “We just return home and either wait for God to heal or we die”. Currently, the old have been collecting information on such vices that hinder their access to medical care and are documenting it as their evidence, which they plan to present to local leaders as a starting point of discussion on what can be done.
It is their right to access medical care and it is time that old people stand up for themselves and demand it. This, through OCM project is to be advocated by pursuing dialogue.
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