Debate on how best to organise old age support in developing countries recognises that poverty is widespread and old age support systems are under increasing pressure as a result of demographic, economic and social transitions and adverse conditions in these countries. In the absence of policy intervention, older people will continue to expand the ranks of the poor and to suffer the cumulative effects of multidimensional poverty. Progress in the implementation of recommendations pertaining to income security and development in the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing 2008 in developing countries is considered. Pensions are noted to play a key role in old age support, but few individuals in developing countries are covered by contributory pension programmes and few countries have the resources to operate universal pension programmes. Non-contributory pensions in Brazil and South Africa have been shown to represent a sustainable policy intervention, which provides income security, reduces individual and household poverty and vulnerability, empowers beneficiaries, and enables them to contribute to development in their communities and society (Barrientos, Ferreira et al., 2009). Old age social protection in Africa is reviewed broadly, and the impact, or contended crowding out effect of informal support systems on nascent formal systems is considered. Lessons are drawn to contribute to discourse on income security arrangements in old age in contexts of dire poverty and scarcity as well as changing environments.