Cost of Family Caregiving of Older Persons in Southern Africa: Looking at South Africa, Botswana, Malawi and Namibia

Wednesday, 9 July 2025: 11:00-12:45
Location: ASJE013 (Annex of the Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences)
RC06 Family Research (host committee)

Language: English

This invited session will explore the different dimensions of the costs of family care of older persons in Southern Africa. The session will review the ways that access to resources makes care possible but also the ways in which it constrains or shapes the care experience, the lives of the different actors involved and overall wellbeing for older persons living in South Africa, Namibia, Malawi and Botswana. Family caregiving is the default long term care practice across the region and this session will discuss the way the costs of family care shape the lives of caregivers, care receivers, families and wider sets of social relations. In considering and reviewing the resources and care practices that older persons and families engage in, the invited speakers will help shed some light on the consequences and challenges of family caregiving of older persons. The invited session follows the work of the Family Caregiving of Older Persons in Southern Africa programme, the first multi-site, four country qualitative longitudinal study on the care of older persons. In discussion with the international sociological audience we will present our findings from our programme but also highlight some of the consequences of entrenched familialist policies in the region.
Session Organizer:
Elena MOORE, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Oral Presentations
Producing Care in Older Persons Households in South Africa
Elena MOORE, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Recognising Carework in LTC in Botswana: Why Pensions Are Not Enough.
Dolly NTSEANE, University of Botswana, Botswana; Gwen LESETEDI, University of Botswana, Botswana
Who Covers the Cost of Care for Older Persons in Malawi?
Jesman CHINTSANYA, University of Malawi, Malawi
Men and Care: Insights from Fathers in Dual-Income Households in Cape Town, South Africa.
Nazeema NAZEEMA, Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa; Khayaat FAKIER, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
See more of: RC06 Family Research
See more of: Research Committees