Relational ageing and international policy networks for the rights of older people: A network perspective on older age and the Sustainable Development Goals A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MSc Social Development Practice Word count: 10,969 (including figures) Caitlin Elise Nisos The Bartlett Development Planning Unit University College London 1st September 2015 (revised February 2016) TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ 2 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................... 3 LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 2: FRAMING THE POLICY SPACE ........................................................................... 8 2.1 THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS .............................................................................. 8 2.2 PUBLIC POLICY ...................................................................................................................... 9 2.3 SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP .............................................................................. 9 CHAPTER 3: FRAMING ‘AGE’ .................................................................................................. 10 3.1 ‘AGE’ AS SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION ......................................................................................... 10 3.2 THEORIES OF AGEING .......................................................................................................... 11 3.3 FACTORS AFFECTING THE AGEING PROCESS ....................................................................... 13 3.4 CHALLENGES FACED BY OLDER PEOPLE .............................................................................. 14 3.5 AGE AND AGENCY ............................................................................................................... 15 3.6 THE MOVEMENT FOR THE RIGHTS OF OLDER PEOPLE .......................................................... 16 3.7 HELPAGE INTERNATIONAL ................................................................................................... 17 CHAPTER 4: ANALYTIC FRAMEWORK .................................................................................. 18 4.1 ACTORS, ACTIONS AND CHOICES ......................................................................................... 19 4.2 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ACTORS ..................................................................................... 21 4.3 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SCALES: INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL POLICY NETWORKS ....... 22 4.4 AGENCY AND SOCIAL CHANGE ............................................................................................. 22 CHAPTER 5: ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................... 23 5.1 RIGHTS ............................................................................................................................... 23 5.1.1 CITIZENSHIP ................................................................................................................. 24 5.1.2 ACCOUNTABILITY .......................................................................................................... 27 5.2 SOLIDARITY ......................................................................................................................... 28 5.3 AGENCY .............................................................................................................................. 32 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 35 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 37 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................. 44 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to Sylvia Beales and Aleksander Mihnovits at HelpAge International for their time and energy over the last few months. I have really enjoyed working with you and assisting with the Global AgeWatch Index 2015. Many thanks also to my supervisor, Alexandre Apsan Frediani, for his support and for his unwavering belief in the power of people to create social change. To my partner, Conan, thank you for always making time to review papers and talk through ideas with me. To my dear parents, who have supported me the whole way through. I cherish you both. This is for you. And to ageing people everywhere (every single one of us), embrace your age and that of those around you! Show how great it looks, regardless of the chronological number. 2 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CSOs Civil Society Organisations HelpAge HelpAge International IGOs International Governmental Organisations ILO International Labour Organisation IMF International Monetary Fund LCP Lifecourse Perspective Theory LDT Lifespan Development Theory MDGs Millennium Development Goals MIPAA Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing NGOs Non-Governmental Organisations NPOs Non-Profit Organisations RBA Rights-Based Approach SDGs Sustainable Development Goals SDSN Sustainable Development Solutions Network SGA Stakeholder Group on Ageing (author’s abbreviation) UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights UN United Nations UNDESA UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs UNFPA United Nations Population Fund WB World Bank WHO World Health Organization 3 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Illustration of International Policy Networks for the Rights of Older People Figure 2: Policy Network Processes 4 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Population ageing (Box 1) is rising on global political agendas as pressures mount on pension, welfare, health Box 1: People aged 60+ currently and care systems in a context of increasing inequality, make up 12.3% of the total world urbanization and globalization. “Old age is often still population. This is projected to rise considered from the economic perspective, with to 16.5% in 2030 and to 21.5% in assumptions of what the ageing population will cost” 2050. They currently outnumber rather than seen as an asset with diverse contributions children under age five. In 2050 (HelpAge 2015h:6). The prevalence of age discrimination eight out of ten of the world’s older and marginalization of older people around the world is people will live in developing disempowering and can lead to a loss of rights, status countries (UNDESA-Population and well-being over the life course. However, Bloom et Division 2015; HelpAge 2015h). al. (2008) argue that “the problem of population ageing is more a problem of rigid and outmoded policies and institutions than a problem of demographic change per se,” (37). Reimagining older age, defined as aged 60+ years, and promoting the social development of older age populations then “requires an orientation of values, objectives, and priorities towards the well-being of all and the strengthening and promotion of conducive institutions and policies,” (UN 1995). Currently, age is still often an after-thought or “add-on” in policy creation, if directly addressed at all. “Global population ageing, therefore, calls for new approaches to development thinking and practice, which needs to become more age-inclusive and recognize the life course impacts of interventions,” (Beales 2012). The post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), facilitated by the United Nations (UN), offer window of opportunity to reframe ageing policies and practices at the global level, as well as to reimagine the experience of older age. International policy networks for the rights of older people, including prominent advocacy organisations such as HelpAge International (HelpAge), are instrumental to the inclusion of older age in SDG processes through advocacy and education. “Ageing is about more than older people” (AI 2015:49), but rather socially constructed via the systems of relationships through which power and resources flow. These relationships are fluid, constantly in flux, being constituted and reconstituted through processes of contestation and 5 negotiation (Rodriguez 2001:772). This dissertation is concerned with the qualities and processes of the constitutive relationships of age-related policy networks at the global scale, and their implications for the rights of older people. The following questions will be explored from a network and political economy perspective: 1) How are international policy networks for the rights of older people operating and what are their implications for the SDGs? 2) What role does HelpAge International play in international policy networks? 3) How can the SDGs be a mechanism to bring about rights for older people? International policy networks for the rights of older people are taken to include both formal policymakers and the interest groups who seek to influence them (Cairney 2014b). These networks include policymakers, politicians, advocacy coalitions and large institutions such as the UN and World Bank (WB) (Figure 1). The SDGs and HelpAge will be subsequently explained in more detail. International policy documents, organisational publications as well as academic and popular literature are utilized