title: Ageing as a global public health challenge: from complexity reduction to aid effectiveness.
abstract: Since 2002, ageing populations worldwide have received increasing attention by global policy-makers. However, resources committed by inter-governmental donors and US-based private foundations in support of ageing-related policies and interventions in non-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries have remained minimal during this decade and, where mobilised, have rarely responded to actual country-level demographics and institutional capacities. We argue that this lag between issue recognition and effective resource mobilisation, while mirroring known dynamics in global agenda-setting, has also been caused by a depiction of ageing as a uniform trend across the Global South. We develop and apply a comprehensive analytical framework to assess the state of ageing dynamics at the country level and uncover substantial regional and sub-regional variation. In response, we suggest replacing complexity reduction in the interest of issue recognition with targeted support for a more nuanced research agenda and policy debate on country-specific ageing dynamics in order to inform and catalyse effective international assistance.
authors.affiliation: School of International Service , American University, Washington, DC, USA. esser@american.edu
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Esser
authors.forename: Patricia S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Ward
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D003710:Demography; D014943:Global Health; D006291:Health Policy; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation