Promoting Policy Attention to Older Persons and Population Ageing

Thank you for the honour bestowed on me today. Thank you very much.

As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the United Nations International Day of Older Persons, let me commend you for the tireless work you do on behalf of older persons around the world.

The theme of this year’s commemoration, Older Persons and the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, could not be more relevant. It comes during the tenth anniversary of the Millennium Summit, on the heels of the recent MDG10 Summit to accelerate progress towards the MDGs.

Globally, one in nine persons is aged 60 years or older and the numbers of older persons continues to rise in all regions of the world. Thus, ageing must be addressed in economic and social plans because many older persons are faced with insecurity and poverty, which requires increased attention and an urgent response.

At the Second World Assembly on Ageing, where I was privileged to head the UNFPA delegation, Governments agreed that the potential of older persons is a powerful basis for future development.

They pointed out that the elderly must be full participants in development and also share in its benefits.

Yet while older persons have much to offer, their contributions often go unrecognized. And here I would like to make an important point: The elderly should not be perceived only as a needy and dependent group.

It is time to replace negative stereotypes of older persons as a burden to society with positive images reflecting the contributions that they make.

While these contributions are not always measured in economic terms, they are equally important: caring for grandchildren and other family members; doing housework and maintaining households; and volunteering in schools, hospitals and places of worship to keep the community strong.

In many parts of the world, older women, already living in difficult circumstances, are assuming the responsibility of taking care of adult children living with HIV/AIDS and orphaned grandchildren. Older care-givers are the backbone of HIV/AIDS care in Africa.

The elderly also play significant roles in emergency and conflict situations, where their wisdom and leadership are often called upon to resolve conflicts, provide primary care, and rebuild communities.

Older persons are also leaders for transmitting culture and traditions to the younger generations.

They strive to be independent as long as they can, at times, even way beyond their possibilities if necessary.

And this brings me to another important point. While we must acknowledge the contributions that older persons make, we must also recognize their vulnerability. Older persons are among the most vulnerable members of society, and their rights and needs have to be addressed.

At UNFPA, we are especially concerned with the millions of poor older persons throughout the world, especially women, who are struggling alone to make ends meet, who have no access to basic social and health services, and who suffer violence and abuse. They need our support.

We will never achieve the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating poverty without addressing the poverty of older persons.

A life-cycle perspective to ageing is essential. Investing in education and promoting good health starting from young ages will pay off in healthier, more productive populations and help to delay or even prevent disability in later life. We also need more dialogue between generations to create a society for all.

Now I would like to return to the theme: my original point: Older persons and ageing and the Millennium Development Goals. What can we do to better incorporate older persons and population ageing into the development process?

I think we can do several things.

First, we can intensify efforts to sensitize policy makers on ageing.

We can listen to older persons and respond to their needs.

We can mainstream population ageing issues into national development agendas.

We can promote the collection, analysis and use of age and sex-disaggregated data and research on population ageing and the rights and needs of older persons to make policies and programmes more responsive to the needs of older persons and thus more effective.

We can encourage coordination among ministries to address the challenges of population ageing.

I am pleased to report that UNFPA is engaged in all of these efforts in countries around the world.

And, second, we can engage the media to develop positive yet realistic images of ageing and expose rights violations.

We can build partnerships and coalitions and involve all stakeholders in public policy change to support ageing issues.

And third, we can include ageing issues in MDG reporting at national and international levels.

I would like to assure you that UNFPA will continue to promote greater awareness and policy attention to older persons and population ageing. We will continue to support censuses, surveys and research to gather data on older persons to promote human rights.

And we look forward to working with the new UN agency, UN Women, to improve the situation of older women.

Together, we can galvanize greater international attention to the rights and needs of older persons worldwide.

Thank you.