CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CALL FOR USEFUL ENGAGEMENT OF WORLD'S OLDER PEOPLE
Press Release
SOC/4479
CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CALL FOR USEFUL ENGAGEMENT OF WORLD'S OLDER PEOPLE
19981028 UN Launches International Year of Older Persons 1999"It is fitting for the last year of the millennium to be the International Year of Older Persons, with the theme, 'Towards a society for all ages' -- a society that does not caricature older persons as pensioners, but rather sees them as both agents and beneficiaries of development', said Secretary-General Kofi Annan, at United Nations Headquarters in New York, in launching the International Year of Older Persons (1999).
Speaking at the annual observance of the International Day of Older Persons earlier this month, Mr. Annan was joined by eminent speakers at an all-day event organized by the New York Non-Governmental Organizations Committee on Ageing. The Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Kensaku Hogen, moderated the first part of the morning programme.
Mr. Annan, who turned sixty himself only recently, noted that in the second half of the twentieth century, 20 years have been added to the average lifespan, and that within 30 years, one-third of the population in developed countries would be over age sixty. By 2150, the world as a whole is expected to reach that proportion, and the older population itself is also ageing. Today, about 20 per cent of those over age sixty are actually over age eighty; that number will rise to 25 per cent by the year 2050.
The traditional pyramid, in which there are many youth and few elders, said Mr. Annan, has given way to the opposite: an inverse pyramid of one child, two parents, four grandparents, and several great-grandparents. But there is also a significant gender dimension to humanity's "coming of age", he stated, where women nearly everywhere live longer than men, and are more likely to be poorer, disabled and marginalized, as well as the care-givers. They sometimes face a triple burden -- child care, elder care and care for themselves.
"We are in the midst of a silent revolution", Mr. Annan continued, "one that extends well beyond demographics with major economic, social, cultural, psychological and spiritual implications; a revolution that will hit
developing nations harder than others, because the tempo of ageing is there already, and will continue to be far more rapid. They will find their situation much more acute."
The International Year is guided by the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing, adopted in 1982, and by the United Nations Principles for Older Persons, promulgated in 1991. In keeping with the Year's theme, a society for all ages would honour traditional elders in their leadership and consultative roles in communities throughout the world, and seek a balance between supporting dependency and investing in lifelong development. "Such a society would be multi-generational and inclusive, rather than fragmented", said Mr. Annan. "Life is becoming less like a short sprint and more like a marathon. And marathon runners will tell you that completing such a race depends on more than health, training and willpower. A sense of common purpose, the knowledge that they are in a community of fellow runners can make the difference between fading and finishing."
In closing, the Secretary-General pointed out that longevity also allows more time for reflection on the meaning of life in our times of rapid change. "How often we see experiences and knowledge distilled in later life into deeper understanding and wider tolerance. I am thinking of former antagonists who overcome deeds of conflict; of bigots who renounce their earlier, more hateful selves; of new achievements in philosophy and literature. I have seen the great potential of the age of ageing." In that spirit, he announced, "The International Year of Older Persons has not begun".
Challenges to Society
Julia Tavares de Alvarez, Alternate Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic, noted that the Year was coming at an appropriate time. The increasing numbers of older people in both absolute and relative terms worldwide in the next two decades would pose tremendous challenges for society, especially in developing nations, where formal social security is merely a fantasy, and the traditional support of families is undergoing rapid change. She asked what single thing could be accomplished in 1999. "We could begin to create the necessary political will to act, before it is too late, by bolstering the image of older people in the media. Perception precedes politics. To be politically and socially innovative, the image of older people as full, useful and active citizens must become firmly implanted in the popular imagination, but not necessarily by romanticizing elders."
Mrs. Alvarez suggested that elders be viewed as possessing the rights and obligations of all members of society, leading ordinary and productive lives, taking their place in the ranks of humanity as valued human beings. She pointed out that the demographic clock was ticking away: "The time to begin is now. We need to stop marking time and instead take the time to make
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our mark on history. Let us seize the day and the International Year to put a human face on ageing, one that will last for all the years to come."
Aurelio Fernandez, Counsellor of the Mission of Spain, and Chair of the United Nations Commission for Social Development, explained that he wanted to stimulate relevant intergovernmental discussions on important linkages among different dimensions and approaches to development. Within the United Nations, the Commission for Social Development was the organ responsible for the preparations for the International Year of Older Persons, he said. With that in mind, two years ago the Economic and Social Council had decided to establish an ad hoc support group to help the Commission in its preparations. The main objectives of the support group, renamed the Consultative Group for the Year, had been to generate interest and awareness about the situation of older persons, about ageing as a process, and to favour exchanges of information and collaboration on matters pertaining to the International Year.
In addressing the connections of the International Year with other intergovernmental processes, Mr. Fernandez stated, "The International Year of Older Persons comes at a time following a series of major United Nations conferences and summits in the early 1990s, including the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna. Efforts are focused on the implementation and follow-up of the goals and commitments adopted at those conferences, particularly the Copenhagen World Summit for Social Development, which served to build consensus on the need to place people at the centre of development efforts, and to direct our economies to meet human needs more effectively."
Another important consequence is that the United Nations concept of a society for all clearly refers to the concept of "a society for all ages", he said. According to Mr. Fernandez, issues that should be addressed as common to the agenda of the International Year and the Copenhagen Summit + 5 review in the year 2000 included how to build education, training and employment strategies that take into account a full life cycle; how to avoid vulnerability and social exclusion; how to strengthen institutions and social networks; and how to improve channels of participation for all. The five-year review of the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development next year would also address common issues. He saw an important convergence of agendas, with issues such as self-reliance of older persons and social support systems, along with the four core issues of the International Year of Older Persons -- the situation of older persons, life-long individual development, multi-generational relationships and the ageing process. Regarding the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women five-year review in the year 2000, the two issues which immediately came to mind, he said, were the situation of women, overrepresented among the elderly and the poor, and the justice and efficiency of the current distribution of roles in society on the basis of age and gender.
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Helen Hamlin, Chair of the NGO Committee on Aging, applauded the recognition by the United Nations General Assembly of the growing numbers of older persons all over the globe. The acknowledgement of their worth, wisdom, experience and knowledge, and recognition of their issues and concerns was exciting, inspirational and challenging -- exciting because the population explosion was happening now, in 1998, and would continue to surge for the next 50 years along with the growth of numbers of young people. Older people were aware of the need to demonstrate their worth as resources, and they needed and wanted to participate fully in all levels of society. The challenge today, she said, was to begin a new and broader effort than ever before to link the generations more meaningfully to foster better relations among the generations "to bring all of us to a clearer, more sensitive understanding of who we all are, and that how we age will influence our futures, both individually and as a society".
Gordon Klopf, Chairman of the 1998 event for International Day of Older Persons, acknowledged that the Day's observance had involved numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the work of United Nations offices. The experience had been gratifying for him after years of his having worked with them. He congratulated the United Nations on sharing their work and plans with NGOs. Mr. Klopf moderated the second half of the morning session.
Changing Population Pyramid
In her keynote address, Gunhild O. Hagestad, Professor at Agder College, Norway, and Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at Northwestern University in Illinois, spoke of "two revolutions" -- one in longevity and age structures, and the other in knowledge about human lives. There was a need for a third revolution, she said, one to enable us to make good use of the "new abundance of life". "The picture of human ageing around the world is one of infinite variety", she said, depending on demographic, economic, cultural and political circumstances. Many of today's "oldest old" were "surprised survivors" who never expected to reach their current age. And, while the rapid increase in survival to advanced old age is characteristic of economically developed nations, the most dramatic triumph in survival has occurred in developing nations, Ms. Hagestad noted. Improvements in health, education and general living conditions have resulted in "a demographic bonus", the largest-ever generation of young people on every continent except Europe.
To illustrate, she said that during the period from 1970 to 1995, Oman increased its general life expectancy from forty-seven to seventy years. At the same time, mortality during the first five years of life was reduced by 91 per cent. Regrettably, there were still dramatic differences in life expectancy, she explained. In sub-Saharan Africa, life expectancy is still fifty years; in some nations, it is below fifty. Some countries in Africa and East Europe have actually shown recent declines in life expectancy. The
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change called "population ageing" is most pronounced in economically developed nations where reduced fertility and declining mortality have markedly changed the age structure of populations. But this demographic transition, which in developed countries has typically taken a century, will occur over a much shorter period of time in developing nations.
Referring to the traditionally demographic term "population pyramid" used to describe the population structure by age and sex, for most of human history, she said, it had been a bottom-heavy structure, with more than half the population under the age of fifteen. There were still about 70 countries or territories with more than 40 per cent of their population under fifteen. Now a growing number of industrialized countries were approaching an onion-like structure, with nearly equal proportions of old people and children. By the year 2030, it is anticipated that every third person in such societies will be over sixty. And because women outlive men by 7 to 8 years, there will be a "feminization", with the world of the very old, a very female world. A majority of older men are married, and are cared for by their wives; in contrast, most older women are widowed. Older men are four times more likely to be cared for by a spouse than are women. We now have populations of new old people with unprecedented health and vitality in most of the decades which we arbitrarily label old age.
In the theme "Towards a society for all ages", there are three key meanings of the word age, Ms. Hagestad stated, first, a society for all ages is a society which does not create symbolic or physical barriers between children, adults and old persons, but rather facilitates contact and communication; second, a society for all ages facilitates and maintains conversations and mutual learning among individuals with different anchorings in historical time; third, a society for all ages allows for continuity and connectedness across a long life.
In many industrialized and urbanized societies today, there is age segregation -- children in day care and schools, and many older persons in institutions limited to the frail old. Such isolated end-stations are costly -- from a financial standpoint and from a social and psychological standpoint. There are efforts to find residential options to enable most old people to remain in their community, to maintain their social networks, and to stay in an environment which they know and master. It is known that stereotypes flourish under conditions of inadequate contact and knowledge. Age segregation makes such contact and knowledge difficult. In many societies, the family realm was the key, perhaps the only truly age integrated institution.
New policies must be employed, Ms. Hagestad explained, which do not single out and separate age groups, particularly the very young and the very old. In the public sphere, we must also provide environments that are safe, supportive and manageable for the old, as well as for children. Public
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transportation such as buses, streetcars and trains usually seem to have been designed for adult men, she noted.
Ms. Nana Apt, Director of the Centre for Social Policy Studies at the University of Ghana, in Legon, addressed her comments to multi-generational relationships. In Africa, she pointed out, in addition to the demographic problems already discussed, there were additional economic and social factors which were bound to adversely impact on the lives of older persons during the current process of urbanization and industrialization. It would require effort to avoid the marginalization of the elderly and to strengthen the family relationships between the ages. She wanted to use Africa, famous for its family ties and respect for elders, as an example of what was possibly to come. The strengths of the African family had been well researched and documented. But there had been forewarnings of the weakening of those family structures. The family's capacity to care for the elderly in meaningful relationships depended on three variables: the social and economic situation; the existence and scope of a social security system; and the nature and structure of the family itself.
Protection of the dignity of ageing, Ms. Apt explained, must begin with the preservation of older persons' economic and social productivity, especially for older women. It had already been noted that poverty in old age usually reflected poor economic and education status earlier in life. Women in Africa were especially vulnerable. Social security systems there were generally based on continuous paid employment, but African women faced discrimination in the work force. In Africa, they had unequal access to basic services, such as food and nutrition, and no rights to land ownership. Widowed and divorced women suffered from degradation and extreme deprivation. All these detrimental factors had a disproportionate impact on ageing women.
Gerontology should become concerned with the social status of the elderly in society, Ms. Apt emphasized. It should be concerned with the broader issues of social justice and fundamental human rights. Developing countries and African societies must now redefine family caring. The family should be recognized as an integrated unit of parents, children and grandchildren. For health and insurance purposes, the definition of family in the workplace for health and insurance purposes is now very restrictive. To avoid marginalization, the best strategy was to protect the rights of older persons within the family. A crucial issue would be how to eradicate poverty among the elderly. Elderly people must be involved to organize and expand the use of their entitlements and their capabilities. Poverty was the main instigator of marginality, and "in an age of longevity, we do not want people living on the sidelines".
She pointed out that it was the scarce resource that becomes sacred and valued. In the twenty-first century, as the number of older persons increased in Africa, as in other developing countries, great age would less likely be
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valued -- without a resource base. What was needed was to build their resources. And what must be avoided is for families to perceive their elders as burdens.
Parallel changes in the family structure have caused a reduction in the number of family members available to support their older relatives. Many young people are now likely to migrate, leaving their parents behind. The recent dramatic decline in fertility combined with the reduction in mortality over the last four decades also means more older people with less young to care for them. Current elderly still have enough living children to care for them, but future cohorts of aged parents with only one child will have fewer offspring to care for them.
Speaking at the end of the morning session, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai, said that the real challenge to be faced in this International Year would be to get governments to recognize that their present systems of policy making, or thinking about policy -- economic and social policy, are inadequate in the light of the massive changes in the age composition of population now taking place, and the even greater changes which are going to take place in the first decades of the new century. "We are aware of the many discussions which have taken place [regarding] social security, health, and other areas", he said. The number [of persons] who are living to an old age is increasing, and "it's a good thing that it is increasing; it should increase; it is after all one of the aims of human society."
It was fine, as long as people lived in one place, worked in one place -- on the family farm or in the family firm and lived in the family house. But that was not the situation now, Mr. Desai said. Children move away. Parents are often left alone. There was no substitute in these instances, he said. Very often, the way in which property rights were defined in these countries did not give old people that claim, which they were entitled to, because of their past contributions. In many societies, there were no systems of social security or health or organized health care. "The greatest challenge we have for the International Year is to ensure that by the time we end it, the situation will have changed." Mr. Desai urged that this should be the focus of the Year's activities, all of the awareness building and all of the analytical work that would be undertaken as part of this Year.
He expressed the wish that the agenda which emerges from the Year be connected with the other agendas that have emerged in the international process. For example, there was a relatively effective and dynamic agenda in the international system on the issue of disability. But many of the things that were being talked about there -- making transportation and housing, among others, more friendly for disabled persons -- are also things that are relevant in the context of an ageing population, he pointed out.
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"We need to connect these agendas much better than we have been doing. We have other agendas which have emerged in the international process", he said. "They included the agenda on gender advancement and gender equality, environment and development, and social development, among others." Poverty, youth, employment, education were relevant issues. The commonality of concerns and interests between older people and between young people was remarkable. "We should use the Year to build these connections, and not to treat this as something which is of interest only to older people. We should try and build a connection between this and the sorts of concerns which came out of the 1998 World Forum on Youth."
Mr. Desai urged that the agenda of the International Year not simply be one of "problems of older persons". He concluded, "Let us see this Year not as a Year which is just going to talk about problems; let us see this Year as a celebration. Longevity is a success. It is something human beings have wanted from the year dot! The fact that we are getting it should not be seen as a problem. It should be seen as an achievement."
The all-day event on the International Day of Older Persons included an afternoon panel discussion moderated by Alexandre Sidorenko, who was named United Nations Coordinator of the International Year at the morning session. Afternoon speakers included Corann Okorodudo, of the Department of Psychology at Rowan University in New Jersey; Esmeralda Brown, Chair, NGO Committee on the International Decade for the World's Indigenous People; and Ki Juxin, Fordham University, New York. A special award was presented to Esther Hymer, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Ms. Hymer has served as an NGO representative to the United Nations since its creation.
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