International Longevity Centre South Africa (ILCSA) is a not-for-profit research, education, policy and care organisation focusing on challenges and opportunities of population ageing, the promotion of healthy and productive ageing, and the optimisation of older persons’ participation in society.

ILCSA is a member of the International Longevity Center Global Alliance (ILC GA), and is operated jointly at The Albertina and Walter Sisulu Institute of Ageing in Africa (IAA) at the University of Cape Town, the Optentia Research Focus Area: Ageing and Generational Dynamics in Africa (AGenDA) Programme at North-West University, Vanderbijlpark Campus in Gauteng, and GERATEC (Gerontological Research, Training, Education and Care), an organisation serving older persons and their carers, headquartered in Cape Town.

Current leadership of ILCSA

The ILCSA team is led by Emeritus Associate Professor Sebastiana Kalula at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Professor Jaco Hoffman at North-West University (NWU) as its co-directors of ILCSA, with Dr Rayne Stroebel, the managing director of GERATEC, an Executive Member of the team. Professor Monica Ferreira (emerita), formerly the President of ILCSA and a Co-President of the ILC Global Alliance, is the Honorary President.

Professor Jaco Hoffman

Jaco Hoffman, (DPhil, Oxon), co-director, is Professor of Socio-Gerontology in the Optentia Research Unit at NWU, where he leads the Ageing and Generational Dynamics in Africa (AGenDA) programme. He is a Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Population Ageing, University of Oxford, where he co-ordinates the African Research Network on Ageing (AFRAN). He is an Honorary Professor in the Institute of Ageing in Africa at UCT, a Past President of the South African Gerontological Association (SAGA); and a founding member of the South African Older Persons Forum. He serves on the Board of Directors of the International Federation of Ageing (IFA). He is a member of the International and Membership Committees of the ILC GA.

Professor Sebastiana Kalula

Sebastiana Zimba Kalula, PhD (UCT), MPhil (Epidemiology), MMed (UCT), co-director, is a retired specialist physician in Geriatric Medicine at UCT and Groote Schuur Hospital. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK). She is the director of the Institute of Ageing in Africa, where she manages a focused and expanding research programme , and she directs ILCSA’s research, policy and advocacy programmes. Her current research interests include cognitive and physical functioning, falls, HIV and ageing, and quality and safety in health care for older adults. She is a member of the Long-term Care Committee of the ILC GA.

Doctor Rayne Stroebel

Rayne Stroebel, DPhil, MA (Dementia Studies), University of Stirling, Scotland, executive member, is the Managing Director of GERATEC (Gerontological Research, Training, Education and Care), an organisation headquartered in Cape Town and operated nationally since 1996. GERATEC provides services and support to the long-term care sector, and forges the development of integrated community and household care models. He is the South African Regional Co-ordinator of The Eden Alternative, a not-for-profit organisation.

Professor Monica Ferreira

Monica Ferreira, D.Phil, PhD (Honoris Causa), honorary president, founded ILCSA in 2005 and served as its president until 2015. She previously served as a Co-President of the ILC Global Alliance, with the late Baroness Sally Greengross at ILC UK. Now retired, Professor Ferreira was the director of The Albertina and Walter Sisulu Institute of Ageing in Africa (2001-2016) and prior to that, the founding director of the HSRC Centre for Gerontology (1991-2000), both at UCT. (The Centre for Gerontology was incorporated in the IAA).) She was the founding editor of the Southern African Journal of Gerontology (1992-2001), and among numerous activities has acted as a consultant on ageing to entities within the United Nations system and the African Union.

Background

ILCSA was admitted as a member to the International Longevity Center (ILC) Global Alliance, headquartered in New York City, USA, in June 2005. ILC was co-founded by the late Dr Robert Butler, former CEO of ILCUSA, and the late Mr Shigeo Morioka, Honorary President of ILC Japan, in 1990. The organisation is an international group dedicated to studying longevity, and forging political, social and economic integration of older persons in society. The group’s mission is to help societies address issues of population ageing, and to respond to challenges and opportunities of this demographic process and resultant longevity in positive and constructive ways.

The ILC Global Alliance currently has 16 centres: In Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, France, India, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom. ILCSA is the only ILC in the Africa region thus far.

The Secretariat of the Global Alliance is hosted by ILCUSA within the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, New York City, USA. Visit the International Longevity Center (ILC) Global Alliance website.

Mission

The mission of ILCSA is to understand processes, implications and situations of individual and population ageing in South Africa and other sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, with an aim to help the nations to accommodate an expanding older population and to enhance the quality of life of older citizens. ILCSA carries out its mission through research, education and training, policy and advocacy, and care – via the dissemination of knowledge for decision support, and responses in the form of care support and programmes and practices.

Programmes

ILCSA’s mission is carried out under four programmatic thrusts. Each thrust and its programme view population ageing positively, as a triumph for humankind, and aim to optimise individuals’ capacity for active, healthy and productive ageing. The programmatic thrusts are: Research. Education & Training. Policy & Advocacy. Care & Support.

Research

ILCSA’s Research Programme is partly guided and supported by the research programmes of the Institute of Ageing in Africa (IAA), a research centre of excellence at UCT, and its counterpart, the Ageing and Generational Dynamics in Africa (AGenDA) programme within the Optentia Research Unit, at NWU. Current broad research priority areas include: The quality of healthcare; the epidemiology and management of dementia; health promotion and disease prevention; social protection and poverty reduction; long-term care; the position of older persons within families; and issues of social inclusion and empowerment, including technology and housing, as well as ageism and discrimination.

Current research projects and international research collaborations are described on the Projects & Activities page.

Education & Training

ILCSA’s Education & Training Programme seeks to address gaps, and strengthen education and training in gerontology, geriatric medicine, and applied gerontology nationally and sub-regionally. The Institute of Ageing in Africa at UCT has a robust Geriatric Medicine division, the oldest at a South African tertiary institution, with a steady turnover of registrars at master’s and doctoral levels in the sub-specialty. Since 2015, the Ageing and Generational Dynamics in Africa Programme at NWU has a robust, multi-disciplinary PhD programme in Social Sciences with Ageing and Development as well as in Relational Dynamics and Development.

GERATEC (Gerontological Research, Training, Education and Care) offers training to a wide range of professionals, service providers and carers, and to members of the public, fostering best care practices to enhance the quality of life of older persons.

ILCSA members and associates engage with stakeholders sub-regionally to expand Africa-relevant education and training on ageing, as well as internationally, and target professionals, practitioners and students in the fields of Gerontology, Geriatric Medicine and Applied Gerontology. An adjunct mission of the Education & Training programme is to promote public education and awareness of ageing.

Policy & Advocacy

ILCSA’s Policy & Advocacy Programme seeks to address the under-development of policies on ageing in South Africa and in the sub-region. Extant policies tend to have a sectoral bias and to be fragmented. Governments in the sub-region focus on youth development, job creation and combating communicable diseases, and give scant attention to the situation and living conditions of older persons. ILCSA engages with stakeholders through policy analysis, advocacy, and knowledge production and dissemination to forge new policy development and implementation. It furthermore contributes to policy debate on ageing in the country and sub-region.

Key ageing-related areas in South Africa identified in need of policy or policy reform, which are being addressed in current ILCSA research projects, are: a) Integrated long-term care services; b) eradication of all forms of elder abuse and age discrimination; c) empowerment of older persons to know and exercise their rights; d) social inclusion; and e) best care practices. The areas, underscored in the UN’s Strategic Implementation Framework, constitute a set of goals for ILCSA’s policy related activities.

Care & Support

ILCSA’s Care Programme & Support focuses on empowering older persons and supporting those who care for them through education, training and development workshops; informing policy and practice; and creating environments that enhance older persons’ quality of life. A key thrust of the programme is to work towards de-institutionalisation, and to transform the culture of care towards more inclusive and age-friendly community support and care models. A current aim is to expand opportunities for ageing-in-place through support and empowerment, including the establishment of intergenerational community and household structures.