1 October 2017: UN agencies marked the International Day of Older Persons by calling for people everywhere to be able to obtain the health services they need, and continue to have work opportunities as they desire. The 2017 Day focused on tapping the talents of older persons for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
On the occasion of the Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a set of guidelines for care providers. In a press release, WHO noted that older people require coordination of assessment and care as they may be living with multiple chronic conditions; however, the world’s health systems are still geared toward treating individual acute diseases, even in high-income countries. The WHO guidelines are aimed at helping primary care workers develop comprehensive assessment and care plans for older people. WHO Director-General Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted that, by the year 2050, one in five people in the world will be aged 60 and older.
Rosa Kornfeld-Matte, UN Independent Expert on older people’s rights, warned against ageism and urged concrete action to avoid denying the human rights of older persons, now and in the future.
Shamshad Akhtar called for special social protection to avoid ‘the feminization of poverty’ among older women who generally outlive men by four to 10 years but have fewer pension benefits or control of assets.
In an opinion piece for The Diplomat, the UN Economic and Social Commission for the Asia-Pacific (ESCAP) Executive Secretary, Shamshad Akhtar, observed that the region’s older population is expected to double between 2015 and 2050, and the ratio of people of working-age to older persons is decreasing sharply; thus, the traditional family support system cannot be relied on in the same way as in the past. She called for progressive health care and income security schemes to ensure economic and social stability in the region and highlighted the situation of older women, who generally outlive men by four to 10 years but have fewer pension benefits or control of assets. Akhtar called for special social protection to avoid ‘the feminization of poverty’ in this age group. She drew attention to the region’s low statutory retirement age and encouraged eliminating age barriers in the formal labor market to help ease the fiscal pressure on pension schemes and health care systems.
International Day of Older Persons is commemorated annually to counter negative stereotypes of older persons and ageing. The 2002 Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing is the international community’s blueprint for policies on the health, development and wellbeing of older persons, and is currently being reviewed for the third time. [UN Press Release] [WHO Web Page on ICOPE Report] [ICOPE Brochure] [Op-ed by ESCAP Executive Secretary] [Web Page on Madrid Plan of Action on Ageing]