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Technical Meeting on Population Ageing Brussels, 6-9 October 1998 [Background Document] [Agenda and details] [Press releases] Participants' Views on Ageing: Excerpts from press releases
The meeting was organized by the United
Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in cooperation with the Population and Family Study Centre
(CBGS), a Flemish scientific institute in Brussels. Participants reviewed the experiences
and population policies of developed countries and identified practices that can be
adopted by their developing counterparts. The meeting also appraised the implementation of
the Programme of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development
(ICPD) and proposed key actions to meet older persons’ needs, with a special focus on
gender and poverty dimensions.
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The General Director of the CBGS, Robert
Cliquet, described population ageing as one of the important issues of the ICPD as well as
for the industrialized nations and their developing counterparts. Mr. Cliquet welcomed all
participants and introduced them to his organization. He described population ageing as
one of the important issues of the ICPD and one of the most critical issues facing both
industrialized and developing nations.
Dr. James Schultz, economist from Brandeis
University in the United States, made a presentation on the economic implications of
ageing. "There have been all sorts of demographic statistics presented in population
ageing discussions. Most are worthless in assessing the economic impact of an ageing
population," he declared. In the United States, he noted, the retired "baby
boom" generation and their children in 2030 are likely to share a per capita income
(inflation adjusted) that is three times greater that of 1964.
Kasturi Sen, a
senior community medicine scientist at the University of Cambridge, said that the drop in
standards is being reinforced in developing countries by structural adjustment policies
and the rising tide of privatization. "While these policies have affected vulnerable
groups disproportionately throughout the world," Ms. Sen said, "they have had
very serious consequences for groups such as pregnant women and elderly people in
developing countries, owing to the complete absence of safety nets, such as pensions or
social security coverage." 
African governments
and international agencies should assist the orphans and widows of those who die of
acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), to reduce the burdens on older people who
currently support such relatives, said James Ntozi, a population studies professor at
Kampala's Makerere University. He said the elderly raise a significant fraction of
Ugandan orphans. AIDS mostly affects people in their most productive years, often
depriving elderly parents of their means of support, he added.
Zeng Yi, a
professor at Peking University's Institute of Population Research, said China urgently
needs to establish a universal old-age insurance system and other family support services
to respond to its rapid population ageing. Such an undertaking would be on the scale of
building a new Great Wall of China.