Developing an indicator-based framework for monitoring older people's human rights: key findings for Peru, Mozambique and Kyrgyzstan

Polly Vizard

Published 21 August 2013

This project was commissioned by HelpAge International as a basis for broader efforts to develop an indicator-based system for monitoring older people’s human rights in different countries across the world. The project has three key aims, 1) to develop an indicator-based system for monitoring older people’s human rights, based on the good practice model published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). 2) to develop a social survey instrument that can be used to build up evidence against the indicators on a country by country basis. 3) to present findings based on the survey data for Peru, Mozambique and Kyrgyzstan. A particular priority has been to address existing research and evidence gaps by extending knowledge and understanding of the outcomes of older people across a range of critical areas of life (or “domains”), including in relation to multidimensional deprivation, discrimination, neglect, maltreatment and abuse. Internationally, there is also a paucity of data on older people’s outcomes that is disaggregated by narrow age band and by characteristics such as gender, disability status, ethnic group and area type (urban / rural). Another key priority has been to begin to build up an evidence base of disaggregated data of this type. In this research report, we set out the indicator-based system that has been developed to meet these aims (the HelpAge panel on the human rights of older people) together with details of the social survey instrument that has been developed in order to build up an evidence base against the indicators (the HelpAge survey on the human rights of older people). The survey was fielded in Peru, Mozambique and Kyrgyzstan during the course of 2012 and key findings based on the survey for these countries are also reported.