RÉSUMÉ: Cette note de recherche propose une justification, et offre un ensemble de paramètres initiaux, pour un effort explicite de forger une politique et une gérontologie de famille scientifiquement pertinentes à l'Afrique. Il se fonde sur une évaluation critique des discours politiques dominants dans la région et les efforts de recherche existants concernant les familles et le vieillissement, en particulier en Afrique sub-saharienne (ASS).

A majority of urban residents in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and other developing regions live in informal settlements, or slums. Much of the discourse on slum health centres on younger generations, while an intensifying agenda on healthy ageing as yet lacks a systematic focus on slums. Similarly, the global age-friendly cities (AFC) movement does not, thus far, extend to slums. This paper examines the particular challenges that a slum-focused age-friendly initiative in SSA may need to address, and the relevance of present AFC indicators and domains for initiatives to advance the health and well-being of older slum dwellers. The analysis builds on the case of two slum communities in Nairobi, Kenya. It analyzes two bodies of relevant evidence from these settlements, namely on the health and social circumstances of older residents, and on the local application and measurement of AFC indicators. The findings point to a set of unsurprising, but also less obvious, core health and social adversities that an age-friendly initiative in such settlements would need to consider. The findings show, further, that the current AFC domains and indicators framework only partly capture these adversities, but that there is potential for adapting the framework to be meaningful for slum settings. The paper concludes by underscoring the need for, and opportunities inherent in, the pursuit of an “age-friendly slums” initiative going forward.

This paper provides a summary of the priorities and strategies stipulated by the major solid waste management (SWM) policies in Kenya. It also provides a brief assessment of their implementation in Nairobi and Mombasa, drawing on data from a 2016 community-based study. We found that SWM policies have evolved to specificity in terms of focus, functions and scope. There was a shift from criminalizing solid waste action or inaction to promoting good practices; from generic acts to specific ones; and from centralized mandates to more decentralized responsibilities. However, SWM remains a critical concern and a major challenge in Nairobi and Mombasa as a result of weak institutional structures and capacity, weak enforcement of regulatory frameworks, and the control of the sector by criminal cartels.

Global debate on required policy responses to issues of older persons has intensified over the past 15 years, fuelled by a growing awareness of the rapid ageing of populations. Health has been a central focus, but scrutiny of global policies, human rights instruments and reports reveals that just as older people are excluded from sexual and reproductive health and rights agendas, so are issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights wholly marginal to current agendas focused on older people. A critical question is whether the policy lacuna reflects a dearth of research evidence or a faulty translation of existing knowledge. A reading of the current research landscape and literature, summarised in this paper, strongly suggests it is the former. To be sure, sexuality in old age is a burgeoning field of scientific inquiry. What the existing knowledge and discourse fail to provide is an engagement with, and elucidation of, the broader sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda as it relates to older persons. A concerted research effort is needed to provide a basis for developing policy guidance and for pinpointing essential indicators and establishing necessary data systems to enable a routine tracking of progress.