NAN-HG-11
Data
By Chinenye Offor
Abuja, March 6, 2018 (NAN) Dr Emem Omokaro, the Executive Director, Dave Omokaro Foundation, has called on relevant agencies to provide accurate data that will facilitate the formulation of national ageing policy for the country.
She made the appeal in Abuja on Tuesday at the Training Programme on Ageing Policy and Formulation, jointly organised by the foundation and the International Institute on Ageing United Nations- Malta (INIA).
She underscored the need for the government to incorporate issues relating to ageing and older persons in all its national development planning processes.
She particularly bemoaned the failure of government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to mainstream issues concerning ageing and older persons into their activities and assignments.
Omokaro urged the appropriate agencies to gather data on different ageing topics and the functional capacity of the older persons after 65 years of age.
She also stressed the need to incorporate specific data on the aged in plans to protect vulnerable persons from violence and abuse in the efforts towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while extending the age bracket from 49 to 80 years.
“The two things you cannot separate are age and disability; they can also help in projection and planning,” she said.
Dr Andrew Mbewe, a representative of World Health Organisation (WHO), said that the strengthening of research capacity and incentives for innovation were vital in efforts to create and execute ageing policies.
He also said that there was need to devise a development strategy on how to look after the aged in the society.
Besides, Mbewe said that the global strategy on ageing could be customised in Nigeria in order to know the specifics in how to deal with the aged in the society.
He called for the pragmatic care of older persons, the strengthening of long-term care, monitoring and research as well as the evolution of age-friendly environment and the promotion of multi-sectoral action.
In her presentation, Mrs Roseline Kihumba, International and Regional Policies Coordinator, HelpAge International-Africa, said that the availability of reliable data would aid the creation of good policies and programmes, while boosting advocacy work, decision making and policy implementation.
She said that purposeful data helped in forecasting, monitoring and evaluating programmes, while promoting entrepreneurship, private sector participation and agenda setting.
She, however, underscored the need for data protection, confidentiality, accountability, gender and cultural considerations when collecting data on the SDGs agenda
Kihumba said that it was important to emphasise issues like resource allocation and political support in plans to formulate and implement ageing policies.
She, nonetheless, stressed that older persons should be part of decision making as well as consultations when sourcing for data on ageing policies.
She also said that was imperative for complementary research and citizen-generated data to meet the minimum basic criteria needed for the development and protection of the rights of older persons.
Kihumba underscored the need for nations to remain committed to regional and international commitments on older persons while dealing with ageing issues.
Also speaking, Mr Simeon Harry, Head of Corporate Planning and Technical Coordination, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said that a synergy among MDAs would facilitate data collection for specific goals.
He said that such synergy was fundamental to data generation for policymaking, particularly in efforts to achieve the SDGs.
Harry said that NBS was in charge of collating and analysing data for national development purposes, adding, however, that the bureau could not do much if the relevant agencies were not producing the needed data.
He, therefore, urged the agencies to make concerted efforts to generate reliable and accurate data that would facilitate the growth of the society. (NAN)
CSO/OOK
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