The voice of Older Persons in Africa was largely absent at the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development Goals due to the none classification and none representation of older persons in the Forum’s CSOs’ Engagement Mechanism. Established in 2015, AFRSD operated for 2 years without the inclusion of the stakeholders on aging.
For the inclusions of older persons, the Dave Omokaro Foundation (DOF) and HelpAge International spearheaded a high level advocacy to UNECA for the recognition of older persons’ rights as a Stakeholder category -2016-2017. AND “WON” – The mobilization of stakeholders across Africa and the convening of the body via the 1st African Regional Conference on Ageing 2018- was held in Nigeria facilitated by DOF.
SGA Africa is a coalition of stakeholders composed of national and regional CSOs and NGOs in the various fields working with older persons, professional bodies, experts in ageing, researchers, academia in interdisciplinary fields; Human Rights Institutes representatives, Rights advocates and older persons themselves mobilized across the African region.
It is a mechanism of engagement of the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Dev. ARFSD is a forum of African members states on implementation, monitoring, and peer evaluation of progress of SDG goals on the continent.
Stakeholder Group on Ageing works alongside the Major Groups eg Women, Youth etc and other stakeholders including Persons with Disabilities and Indigenous people to engage member states during the Voluntary National Review (VNR) exercise on SDGs and to shadow national governments and discuss in authentic terms, their delivery of inclusive programs.
It is a platform for crafting position statements for African regional high-level advocacy by stakeholders on thematic issues at the UN High-level Political Forum held annually in NY . SGA Africa plays an invaluable role in advancing older persons’ rights and policy action in aging
The just concluded 2025 AGM featured a change of baton – a new steering group to accelerate advocacy at the highest level. As ED.of Dave Omokaro Foundation & Convener, I served as pioneer co-chair 2017-2021
