Photo credit: Clemence Eliah/HelpAge International
It has been a year since EU Member States agreed to make bold and transformative steps towards changing the lives of all people across the world by adopting the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs). These 17 goals seek to realise the human rights of all and create a world in which all people, including older people, live free from fear and violence.
"Older people" or "people of all ages" are referred to throughout the 17 SDGs. This is an important step forward considering the omission of this vulnerable group in the Millennium Development Goals.
The commitment to Leave No One Behind is a crucial characteristic of the agenda; however words alone are not enough to make the ambition a reality. Currently, the percentage of people aged 60 and over in Tanzania is 4.8% and this is projected to rise to 5.2 by 2030. At the same time, Tanzania remains one of the poorest countries in the world.
The progress so far
The Government of Tanzania has put in place some measures to support older people. These include:
•the provision of free health care services;
•the renaming of the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children;
•the introduction of a universal non-contributory pension for older people in Zanzibar; and
•the inclusion of older people in the Tanzania Social Action Fund cash transfer programmes
Issues of older people's rights have been recognised at both the national and regional level, with the ratification of the African Union's protocol on the Rights of Older Persons and its Plan of Action.
In spite of progress, the situation of older people in Tanzania remains uncertain and greater efforts need to be made to overcome the many challenges they face, including the burden of care to orphans and young children and the high level of gender based discrimination and violence against older women, particularly through land grabbing and witchcraft killings.
Photo credit: Clemence Eliah/HelpAge International
Women's empowerment
The European Commission, through the European Instruments for Democracy and Human Rights, has funded a project in the North West region of Mwanza to promote and protect the rights of older women. The project aims to empower and train older women activists on human rights. They are being taught through paralegals to write their own wills to protect their land from grabbing and ensure their children have an inheritance once they die.
Many perpetrators of witchcraft killings in Tanzania evade prosecution but the older women who are part of this project are coming together to report crimes, consequently increasing trust in the police and improving their access to justice. They are being encouraged to mobilise around public awareness initiatives to encourage other older men and women to seek help.
Community leaders and senior members of the judiciary and the police force are also being trained to expand public recognition of the negative impact of harmful practices that inhibit older women's potential, threaten their safety and ignore their human rights.
A strong partnership
These kinds of projects demonstrate how EU funding can be used to address targets across a number of interconnected SDG goals. In this case, the project goes some way towards achieving goal 16, to promote peaceful and inclusive societies and provide access to justice for all as well as contributing to the achievement of the targets within goal 5 on gender equality and goal 10 on reducing inequality.
The EU's commitment to 'increasing awareness of the human rights and specific needs of older persons paying particular attention to age based discrimination' in the Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2015-2019, is an encouraging indication that more programmes that target the specific human rights challenges faced by older people will receive support.
Importantly, the EU and Tanzania are benefitting from over 40 years of strong partnership to promote inclusive development. Now we must push for other initiatives, similar to the one in Mwanza, to continue building on this relationship and achieve the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals.