Roundtable on “How to ensure ageing with dignity?

20220521 Roundtable on

Tuesday, 23 May 2017 - Concept Paper, CSEND, Geneva

Ageing is a natural phenomenon of the life course. Societies have various ways in dealing with their respective senior members. However, human societies have seen an unprecedented age bonus with an extended life expectancy into the 80’s. Number of people who are older than 60 years of age reached 901 million in year 2015, constitute 12.3% of the total worldwide population. By 2050, it was forecasted that this number will reach 2.09 billion worldwide. This has changed the demographic distribution of populations and the demand patterns for public services.

Distribution of the senior population is pretty uneven correlating with the wealth of individual countries. Presently, most of the advanced economies have 20-29% of the population older than 60 years of age. By 2050 African countries are the only ones enjoy a youth bonus while the rest of the world are greying fast (UNDESA, 2015). Rapid depletion of the workforce of 25-55 age group is a major cause of rethinking, especially in the area of age, productivity, and human rights nexus.

In the context of 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, the SDGs clearly identify older people as an integral part of social development in Goal 3 - "Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages". This is particularly poignant for the senior citizens of the lower socioeconomic strata. Therefore the SDG Goal 3 serves as a policy reminder not to leave behind the older population in any shapes or forms. An integrated approach to policy making will range from rethinking physical environment, infrastructure to public financing, institutional design and explicitly social contract and solidarity such as welfare and insurance schemes.

How to provide for the senior citizens sustainable living, care, and access to opportunities of continued participation in different spheres of life has become a major policy challenge in all countries. What could be the right policy mix to address the needs of the senior citizens? How to adopt an integrated approach in tackling the ageing issue? These are the questions for debate.

During this Library Talk, a new publication titled “The 2016 Retirement Quality Index of Chinese Large and Medium Cities” by Prof Yang Yifeng, Keyu Cheng & Jia Cao, (2017) will be launched as well as publications by other speakers.

Programme - 23rd May 2017, UNOG, Geneva; ROUNDTABLE ON “HOW TO ENSURE AGEING WITH DIGNITY?”

Summative Report of UN Library Talk event

Presentation: "The distinctive feature of the elderly is not dependence, but fragilty ", Dr Hans Graf, Geneva

Presentation; “Studying Aging WorkForce”, Regula Ruetz, Direktor, Metro Basel, Basel

Presentation: “Dispelling the myths: Towards a Life free of Violence and Abuse”, Silvia Perel-Levin, Chair, NGO Committee on Ageing-Geneva

Presentation – “Important six “Ds” in life”, Prof Em. Kozo Matsubayashi, Kyoto University, Japan

Presentation – “ Research on the service system of ‘aging care in place’by integrated care, Prof Yifan YANG, Deputy Director, National Interdisciplinary Institute on Aging (NIIA) , Southwest Jiaotong University, China

Summative Report: Roundtable On "Ageing with Dignity"