Our experience of using age- and sex-disaggregated data
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The new Global Goals put strong emphasis on the need to achieve progress for people of all ages. This includes older people who face particular challenges in relation to health, income security and age discrimination, amongst other issues. However, existing data often sheds little light on the specific dynamics of these issues. This makes it difficult to know how older people fare compared to other generations, and to understand the heterogeneity of older people’s experiences. This situation is driven by issues right across the chain of collection, collation, analysis and dissemination of data.
As a contribution to expanding the evidence base, HelpAge International undertook research in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to interrogate existing data relating to the income security of older people in the Asia region. Almost all countries in the world regularly undertake surveys such as Labour Force and Income and Expenditure Surveys which have significant potential to shed light on older people’s incomes. However, the level of disaggregation of this data in published reports is rarely sufficient to provide an in depth understanding. The research therefore undertook analysis of these existing surveys to provide greater levels of disaggregation by age, sex and a number of other important variables. The focus was five Asian countries: Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand.
The research revealed a number of new insights that can inform policy making on ageing and social protection:
A mixed picture on income from work
Age-disaggregated data on employment patterns challenge the simplistic generalisation of older people as economically dependent. A common measure used in relation to ageing policy is the “old age dependency ratio” which makes the implicit assumption that everyone over the age of 65 is economically dependent on a “working age” population (age 15–59). Data from the five countries, however, reveals that significant portions of older people continue to work; with 60 per cent of over 60s in employment in Nepal, and around 40 per cent in the other four countries.
Work, nevertheless, becomes increasingly challenging at older ages. By disaggregating employment data by sub-age group of older people, it is clear that levels of work are significantly lower at more advanced ages. The intensity of work — measured by number of hours worked — also decreases. The majority of older people are reported to be out of work due to health issues and disability, which become increasingly prominent in old age. Indeed, analysis of prevalence of disability found in all countries shows that levels increased with age, matching analysis undertaken at a global level. The chart below shows the picture in Bangladesh based on questions which use the Washington Group Short Set of Questions.
Accessing social protection
One dimension of the Global Goals of particular relevance to older people’s income security is the ambition to expand the coverage of social protection systems (targets 1.3, 5.4 and 10.4), and particularlywhich includes pensions. These systems have significant potential to reach the most marginalised, yet their success in doing so depends on them being accessible. One seemingly counter-intuitive finding of the research was that social pension schemes targeted at the very poorest and most marginalised older people were less effective at reaching them than more universal schemes. In Bangladesh and Thailand, means-tested schemes were found to exclude over half of the target beneficiaries. The reason is that targeting systems commonly fail to correctly identify the poorest, and can create additional barriers to them accessing schemes.
Nevertheless, even universal schemes miss a small portion of beneficiaries, and an important question is why. By disaggregating data on receipt of pensions by age in Nepal and Thailand it was possible to identify that coverage of social pensions was lowest immediately after the age of eligibility. In Thailand, for example, 24 per cent of older people aged 60–64 were not receiving the social pension in 2014, compared to 13 per cent at aged 65–69. This suggests that the main driver of exclusion relates to challenges of registering for the scheme after an individual had become eligible. Two key issues documented in the wider literature are inaccurate or missing civil registration documents to prove age eligibility for such schemes, as well as a lack of awareness that the schemes exist. Knowledge of these issues can support governments to take steps to support civil registration and strengthen awareness raising.
Age and gender
As well as age, the study disaggregated data by sex, marital status and other variables, which revealed the intersectionality between different forms of vulnerability. In all countries women face particular challenges to earning an income. Their chance of being in employment is significantly lower than men, which reflects a pattern for women of all ages. For older women of less advanced ages, family responsibilities are a common reason for not working, although health issues become dominant at more advanced ages (See chart below for the case of Bangladesh). Older women are also less likely to be able to look to their spouses for economic support, with between 43 and 67 per cent of women widows across the five countries.
The working histories of older women also mean they are less likely to receive contributory pensions, although coverage of these schemes is low for older people of both sexes. In contrast, social pensions — which have becoming increasingly common across Asia and the world — have higher coverage of older women.
The report Work, family and social protection: Old age income security in Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam will be launched in February 2016.
Charles Knox-Vydmanov, Social Protection Policy Adviser, HelpAge
More articles in this series
- A world where everyone counts: Publishing the DFID Data Disaggregation Action Plan
- Our Experience of Using Disability Disaggregated Data: Sightsavers International Share Learning
- Our Experience of Using Age and Sex Disaggregated Data: HelpAge International Share Learning
- World Data Forum 2017: Three Simple Ways to Join In
- A Conversation on Data Disaggregation: An Inclusive Revolution
- Help Us Improve Age Disaggregated Data
- Help Us Improve Age Disaggrgated Data: Aging
- Help Us Improve Age Disaggrgated Data: Youth
- Help Us Improve Disaggregated Data: Technical Discussion paper
- A Human Rights Based Approach to Data
Find out more about the work we are doing at the Department for International Development to improve the production, analysis and use of better quality disaggregated data. Download our action plan today.
