Introduction

There is considerable diversity of population trends across low- and middle-income countries and not all have reached the final stage of demographic transition. Despite this, population ageing is accelerating in almost all countries, particularly in middle-income emerging economies. The speed of demographic change poses significant policy challenges for these countries, and they have limited time to set in place the necessary institutions (Lloyd-Sherlock, 2010). Building a knowledge base capable of supporting effective policies addressing rapid population ageing in such contexts is urgent. This chapter reports on the design and main findings of the research project Ageing, Well-Being and Development: A Comparative Study of Brazil and South Africa.

The research focuses on the wellbeing of older people and their households. For all countries, successfully meeting the challenges of population ageing involves ensuring that older populations enjoy adequate levels of wellbeing. For countries like Brazil and South Africa, the main challenge is to ensure that older people, and public policy that targets them, are fully integrated into economic and social development. A key hypothesis guiding the research project was that ageing, wellbeing and development are closely interlinked.

• • The research aimed to provide answers to the following questions:

• • What are the main effects of individual ageing on the dynamics of household income and livelihoods in Brazil and South Africa?

• • What are the effects of individual ageing on household dynamics?

• • With the benefit of cross-country comparisons, which are the institutions and social structures that could best support ‘active ageing’ in developing countries?

• • What is the impact of pension entitlements and other anti-poverty programmes on the wellbeing of older people and their households?

This research examined the impact of individual ageing on the wellbeing of older people and their households in low-income areas Brazil and South Africa, with a view to informing appropriate policies to address the challenges of accelerated population ageing in developing countries. The main source of information for this study was a longitudinal and comparative survey of older persons and their households in South Africa and Brazil constructed as part of the project. Building on an earlier study in the two countries undertaken in 2001-03, we collected a second round of survey data by visiting the same households in 2008/09.