Organisations striving for the rights and welfare of the elderly have urged the government to develop a special policy to cater for them in a bid to ensure a dignified old age.
Their observations follow the endorsement by an extraordinary Cabinet meeting on Friday, March 6 in Kigali of a draft law approving the ratification of the Additional Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Older Persons in Africa.
That Additional Protocol was adopted by the 26th Ordinary Session of the General Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on January 31, 2016. Rwanda signed the Protocol in October 2019.
According to the Protocol, older persons means those aged sixty (60) years and above, as defined by the United Nations (1982) and the AU Policy Framework and Plan of Action on Ageing (2002).
Elie Mugabowishema, Founder and President of Nsindagiza – an organisation aiming at the support and care to the most vulnerable older persons said that the ratification and subsequently the domestication of the Protocol into national legislation is important in that it will enable the review of policies about health, nutrition, family, and social protection among others.
But, he pointed out that there should also be a stand-alone policy for the elderly.
"The legal and policy framework does not cover old people’s needs [effectively] but what is most important is that the special policy for the elderly is available,” he said.
Access to health services through geriatric care
On access to healthcare, the Protocol indicates that States Parties shall guarantee the rights of older persons to access health services that meet their specific needs. They should take reasonable measures to facilitate access to health services and medical insurance cover for older persons within available resources, and ensure the inclusion of geriatrics and gerontology in the training of health care personnel.
Geriatric care responds to the complex needs of older people, focusing on health promotion and the prevention and treatment of disease and disability.
Mugabowishema said that such care is much needed because there are diseases or medical conditions that particularly affect the elderly, citing diabetes, hypertension, paralysis, and bone diseases.
"When a person has reached old age, even their hearing and vision capacity decreases,”, he said, adding that they also get forgetful which can result in memory loss.
Such conditions, he said, are treated at district hospital level or beyond, which is far especially given the fact that the old patient has to go there frequently.
"We want that geriatric care close to them. Medical officers and specialists in geriatric care should be based at health centres or even reach out to the old people in their homes in case they are unable to move there,” he said.
And even though such medical services might be covered by the community health insurance scheme, Mugabowishema said that the elderly have to pay 10 per cent of the medical bill, yet they are no longer working to be able to get income to afford it, which calls for government’s intervention.
Meanwhile, in 2018, pensioners requested a special retirement policy in which they want the government to establish a geriatric hospital to provide healthcare to them, help retirees get access to funding to carry out income-generating activities and a more affordable transport system.
Modeste Munyuzangabo, President of the Rwanda Pensioners’ Association told The New Times that the special hospital for the elderly is needed because of their particular health needs.
"The hospital would be carrying out research to determine serious diseases threatening the lives of old people, and find a remedy to them,” he said also reiterating that diabetes, hypertension, and paralysis are some of the common diseases among them.
The 2012 Rwanda Population and Housing Census counted 511,738 elderly persons (60 years and above) -- with 207,239 men and 304,499 women -- corresponding to 4.9 per cent of Rwanda’s total population in 2012.
According to estimates from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, old Rwandans – aged from 60 and above – are expected to double by 2032.
The Protocol’s provisions on social protection
Regarding social protection, the Protocol says that States Parties shall develop policies and legislation that ensure that older persons who retire from their employment are provided with adequate pensions and other forms of social security.
Also, they should ensure that universal social protection mechanisms exist to provide income security for those older persons who did not have the opportunity to contribute to any social security provisions.