PRESS BRIEFING BY UNITED NATIONS PROGRAMME ON AGEING

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNITED NATIONS PROGRAMME ON AGEING

Societies in the developed and developing worlds must change radically -– and before the post-Second World War “baby boomers” reached retirement age –- if they were to accommodate the twenty years added to the average lifespan in the second half of this century, the Coordinator of the United Nations Programme on Ageing, Alexandre Sidorenko told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this morning. With Dr. Sidorenko were the Director of Development for the Non-Governmental Organization HelpAge International, Mark Gorman, and the Director of the Centre for Social Policy Studies at the University of Ghana, Nana Apt. The three were reporting developments in the current International Year of Older Persons, as the General Assembly began a two day debate on the theme this morning.

The so-called developing world had much to teach industrialized societies about the fast-emerging new intergenerational social structure, Dr. Gorman said. “Mostly it has to do with respect. The industrialized countries have developed very damaging stereotypes about ageing that don’t exist in developing world societies.”

“African society, for example, is very intergenerational”, Dr. Apt added. “We don’t have that automatic association that turns advanced age into a state of dependency or illness. Elders in African society take care of children just as parents do. They are the support of their families. There is no arbitrary cut-off to their active life.” African societies had the structure the rest of the world needed to adopt as the demographic revolution continued “towards a society for all ages”, said Dr. Apt.

“The ageing of the baby-boomers brings up interesting questions,” Dr. Sidorenko added. “Will those who created the technological age be treated in the same way as their elders are treated today? Will Bill Gates in retirement be treated the same as someone on social security today?”

The major shift over the next few years as the generational shift continued, would be a retreat from the perception that older persons were patients or passive beneficiaries. However, that shift in perspective did not immediately imply activism, said Dr. Sidorenko. “We’re not saying that as they age, people should be pushed to be productive until they drop dead. We are saying they will have the option to remain as socially active as they want.”

Dr. Apt said people in African societies had an advantage over others in their refusal to view elders in terms of dependency. All persons were interdependent, from childhood all the way through adulthood. “Towards a society for all ages” -–the theme of the

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International Year -- simply meant that people would not be marginalized for reasons of age.

The International Year would continue right up to the end of the millennium, Dr. Sidorenko said. This morning the European Union had told the General Assembly it was reconsidering and revising its plans for the rest of the International Year, adopting the new theme of “lifelong development”. That wholly new approach would emphasize the all-inclusive nature of the ageing issue in a world changing daily from “an ageing society to a society for all ages”. Involving as they did such issues as social security and post-retirement employment, older people and the issues they raised played a major role in development.

To make the transition from an ageing society to a society for all ages, Dr. Sidorenko told a correspondent that fundamental stereotypes about ageing had to change. Stereotypes led to discrimination. First there was discrimination in the labor force. Then there was routine discrimination, such as lack of access to buildings or health care, or the prevalence of inappropriate facilities. Changing the stereotypes and discrimination in those areas depended on changes in policy and legislation. With regard to discrimination based on image, the stereotype of older persons as dependent and insignificant had to be changed. In mid-0ctober, the United Nations would sponsor a meeting organized by Non-Governmental Organizations and academia to address the issue of image with regard to older persons, and more specifically, the image of older women.

To illustrate the insidious nature of the discrimination that came from stereotyping older persons, Dr. Gorman cited a common phenomenon in the development community, where persons over 55 were considered bad credit risks. Only recently had it become evident that those people were, in fact, very good credit investments. In another example, a number of development workers had been interviewed on issues related to ageing. The workers gave negative views. When asked how they would respond if the word “aged” were replaced with “woman” or “Hispanic”, those workers expressed surprise at the level of unconscious discrimination their responses revealed –- an index of deeply ingrained stereotypes about ageing. Those barriers had to be broken down, not just at the family and community level but throughout all society. Recognizing that people lived longer lives set new priorities. For example, literacy programmes would be considered better investments once it was accepted that there was a longer lifespan overall.

Dr. Apt agreed that ageing was a societal responsibility, no longer to be relegated to the family. Since the number of older people in developing countries was projected to double over the next 25 years, ageing was no longer just a developed country phenomenon. Already 60 per cent of people over 60 years of age lived in the developing world. With no social security systems in those countries, and with the family social structure severely strained, societies both there and in the industrialized world faced the same question. Throughout history,

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ageing had been approached as an issue primarily involving the surmounting age-related problems. Could society now turn around and see ageing as simply another social issue? How do we ensure that all people remain a part of society as long as they live?

A correspondent echoed that question, asking whether the developed world was ready to deal with the ageing of the baby-boom generation.

“It’s a challenge”, Dr. Sidorenko said. “Society and individuals both need to adjust, and the operational word is adjust.” The adjustments, he added, would be at all levels. They would involve such issues as social security, work, and the independence factor, influenced by the fact that the young generations would no longer be able to support their elders. By supporting themselves, even as society did its share by looking out for their dignity and needs, the elders would break down the stereotypes that led to discrimination. “It is important to recognize that this is not an intergenerational war. It is an acknowledgement that people, at the global level, are living twenty years longer. That’s a significant change. It requires society to make an adjustment to accommodate it.”

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