Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T15:42:30.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Elderly People and Social Welfare in Zimbabwe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Joe Hampson
Affiliation:
Director of Fieldwork, School of Social Work, University of Zimbabwe, P.B. 66022 Kopje, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Abstract

The ageing of Third World populations and its implications for planning in social welfare has received little attention in the literature until now. This article explores the need radically to alter Western models of care for elderly people in an African context, arguing that in situations of mass poverty and gross economic differentiation a concentration on social welfare for urban formal sector employees is inappropriate. Zimbabwe is used as a case study. The situation of the aged in Zimbabwe is analysed from existing but scanty data, and sets of policy proposals that have relevance to the national economy and to the rural, urban and commercial farming sectors are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 Most of the figures in this paragraph come from the introduction to the Vienna International Plan of Action on Aging, United Nations, 1983.

2 Based on the 1969 census the Central Statistics Office published crude estimates of age distribution of the population of Zimbabwe until August, 1982, when the exercise was discontinued. The 1982 census details are expected to be published sometime in 1984/1985.

3 Speaking of data from ten typical Third World countries, Chenery concluded that ‘even if we define the target beneficiaries as the lowest 80% of the rural population, this group receives only about 50% of the rural income; the rest is appropriated by the upper 20%, who do not form part of the target population’. Chenery, H. et al. , Redistribution with Growth. OUP, London, 1974, p. 21.Google Scholar

4 The new settler agricultural ventures were heavily subsidised, and African agricultural produce was bartered and not allowed to be sold for cash. Cf. Riddell, Rodger, The Land Problem in Rhodesia. Mambo Press, Gweru, 1978, p. 6.Google Scholar

5 Report of the Social Security Officer, Southern Rhodesia. Salisbury, Government Printer, 1944, paragraph 146.

6 Ibid., paragraphs 229–230.

7 Ibid., paragraphs 252–253.

8 Present-day Zimbabwe consists of peoples who derive from a number of tribal groupings, the most prominent of which are the Shona and the Ndebele. I speak of the Shona grouping because it is the one with which I am most familiar, because it forms 77% of the population, and because it is the group about which most research and literature is available.

9 Bourdillon, M., The Shona Peoples. Mambo Press, Gwelo, 1976.Google Scholar

10 Hampson, J., Old Age: A Study of Aging in Zimbabwe. Mambo Press, Gweru, 1982, p. 14.Google Scholar

11 Clarke, D., Economics of African Old Age Subsistence in Rhodesia. Mambo Press, Gweru, 1976, p. 9.Google Scholar

12 In this paragraph I am following the conceptual framework provided by Philip Raikes in his The Development of a Commodity-Producing Peasantry in Tanzania. CDR, Copenhagen, 1978 (mimeo).

13 Sakala, Z., ‘Zimbabwe: Independence and the Agrarian Question – Some Preliminary Notes’. Paper for Zimbabwe Economic Society Seminar, University of Zimbabwe, 1980 (mimeo).Google Scholar

14 Whitsun Foundation, Social Security Study. Harare, 1979, p. 28.

15 Health Sector Policy Paper. World Bank, Washington, 1980, p. 80.

16 Provincial Medical Officer of Health, Matabeleland, quoted in Gilmurray, J. et al. , Struggle for Health. Mambo Press, Gweru, 1979, p. 39.Google Scholar

17 Faruqee, R., Social Infrastructure and Services in Zimbabwe. World Bank S taff Working Paper, Washington, 1981, p. 67.Google Scholar

18 Clarke, D., Agricultural and Plantation Workers in Rhodesia. Mambo Press, Gweru, 1977. p. 31.Google Scholar

19 I have used the post-colonial names, Cf. Mouton, Pierre, Social Security in Africa, International Labour Office, Geneva, 1975, Table 1, pp. 48.Google Scholar

20 This was a non-contributory scheme for all who reached 65 years of age and all blind who reached 40, subject to a means test (subsequently abolished in 1957). In 1964 the qualifying age was reduced to 60 for men and women, and an income bar introduced. Based on a report written by Professor Abel-Smith and Mr Tony Lynes the Mauritian government in 1978 re-organised their pension scheme to provide for a three-tiered class of pension; a basic level to which all citizens were entitled, a contributory level for which only contributors were eligible, and industrial injury level for which again only previous contributors were eligible. Cf. Paper EASST/1980/23 in Report on the ILO Norway African Regional Training Course for Senior Social Security Managers and Administrative Officials. International Labour Office, Geneva, 1982.

21 Savy, R., Social Security in Agriculture. International Labour Office, Geneva, 1972, p. 94.Google Scholar

22 United Nations, Economic and Social Council, Commission for Social Development, ‘Social Security in the Context of National Development’. New York, 1970, p. 24.

23 Mouton, P., op. cit., pp. 108113.Google Scholar

24 Poverty and the Development of Human Resources: Regional Perspectives, World Bank Working Paper No. 406, July 1980, ‘Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa’ by Davies, D., pp. 6769.Google Scholar

25 The World Bank Annual Report 1983. World Bank, Washington, 1983, p. 67.

26 Ibid. pp. 70–76.

27 Paukert, F., ‘Social Security and Income Redistribution: A Comparative Study’, International Labour Review, 98 (1968), 449.Google Scholar See also the same author's ‘Income Distribution at Different Levels of Development’, International Labour Review, 108 (1973). 97–125.

28 Social Security Documentation – African Series, No. 5. ISSA, Geneva, 1983.

29 Haskins, D., ‘Role of Transitional Measures in the Provision of Social Security Protection for the Rural Populations in Developing Countries’, in Social Security Protection of Rural Populations in Developing Countries. ISSA, New Delhi, 1980.Google Scholar

30 Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Incomes, Prices and Conditions of Service, under the Chairmanship of Roger C. Riddell. Government Printer, Harare, 1981, p. 174.

31 Riddell Commission, op. cit. p. 61.

32 Zimbabwe Conference on Reconstruction and Development: Conference Documentation(ZIMCORD). Government Printer, Harare, 1981, p. 40.

33 Cross, E., ‘The Tribal Trust Lands in Transition: The Policy Implications’, Rhodesia Science News, 11, 8 (1977).Google Scholar

34 Berg, A., ‘Malnutrition in Zimbabwe’, World Bank draft document, 1982.Google Scholar Quoted in Loewensen, R., ‘The Epidemiology of Malnutrition in Four Socio-Economic Sectors of Zimbabwe’. University of Zimbabwe Medical School (mimeo), 1983.Google Scholar

35 For example, Oberai, A. and Singh, H., ‘Migration, remittances and Rural Development: Findings of a case study in the Indian Punjab’, International Labour Review, 119 (1980), 229241Google ScholarPubMed and ‘Migration Production and Technology in Agriculture: a Case Study in the Indian Punjab’, 121 (1982), 327–343.

36 A clear outline of both the methodological issues and particular examples of case studies throughout the Third World, including Nigeria and Tanzania, is contained in ‘Indicators of Rural Inequality’ by Castro, A., Hakaussan, N. and Brokensha, D., World Development, 9, 5 (1981), 401427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37 Riddel Commission, op. cit. p. 60. The survey was conducted by the Economics Department of the University of Zimbabwe in January, 1981.

38 Whitsun Foundation, op. cit. p. 90 and Weinrich, A. K., African Farmers in Rhodesia, OUP, London, 1975, p. 83 respectively.Google Scholar

39 Riddel Commission, op. cit. p. 58.

40 Tariro, J., ‘Helping the Aged in their rural environment’, School of Social Work, 1983 (mimeo).Google Scholar

41 ‘Report on the Aged Study’, Research and Development Unit, Harare Municipality Department of Community Services, 1983 (mimeo).

42 Hampson, J., op. cit.Google Scholar

43 Muchena, O., ‘The African Aged in Town: A Salisbury Study’, School of Social Work, Salisbury, 1978 (mimeo).Google Scholar

44 Muchena, Ibid. p. 17.

45 Munyanyiwa, F., ‘Comparison of Stated Reasons for Public Assistance between Rural and Urban Applicants: a Case Study of Applicants at Mount Darwin and Highfield Social Services Offices’, School of Social Work, 1983 (mimeo).Google Scholar

46 Brand, V., ‘One Dollar Workplaces: a Study of Informal Sector Activities in Magaba, Harare’, School of Social Work, Harare, 1982 (mimeo).Google Scholar

47 Loewenson, R., ‘Health Status and Farm Workers’, Social Change and Development, 05 1983.Google Scholar

48 Chikanza, I. et al. , ‘The Health Status of Farm-worker Communities in Zimbabwe’, Central African Journal of Medicine, 27, (1981).Google Scholar

49 Smith, S., ‘Energy Use Patterns and Household Reproduction of Farm Worker Compounds: a Case Study’, School of Social Work Field Report, 1984 (mimeo).Google Scholar

50 Riddell Commission, op. cit. p. 181.

51 Cf. Savy, R.op. cit.Google Scholar

52 Waterston, L., ‘Medical Problems Associated with “Ageing”’, in Hampson, J. (ed.), Ageing and the Elderly, School of Social Work, 1982, p. 22.Google Scholar

53 Brand, V., ‘Social Security Provisions and the Informal Sector: some Options for Zimbabwe’, Riddell Commission submission. School of Social Work, Harare, 1982 (mimeo).Google Scholar

54 Mouton, P., op cit. pp. 139145.Google Scholar

55 See Godfrey, V., ‘A Broader Role for National Provident Funds: the Zambian Experience’, International Labour Review, (1974), pp. 137152.Google Scholar

56 Kaseke, E., ‘Social Assistance in Developing Countries: the Case of Zimbabwe’, London School of Economics, 1982 (mimeo).Google Scholar

57 For a good bibliography see ‘African Peasants and Resistance to Change: a Reconsideration of Sociological Approaches’, by Hutton, C. and Cohen, R. in Oxaal, I. et al. (eds), Beyond the Sociology of Development. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1975, pp. 105131.Google Scholar

58 Cockburn, C., ‘The role of Social Security in Development’, International Social Security Review, 33 (1980), 337358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar