Governments in Asia and the Pacific Endorse Strategy on Ageing

BANGKOK - (United Nations Information Services) - Representatives of 20 Asian and Pacific Governments have today endorsed a regional implementation strategy for dealing with various emerging social issues related to the region's rapidly ageing population.

The representatives were attending the Asia-Pacific Seminar on Regional Follow-up to the Second World Assembly on Ageing, held in Shanghai, China from 23 to 26 September.

The Seminar, organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), in co-ordination with China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, the China National Committee on Ageing, and Shanghai's Civil Affairs Bureau, resulted in the endorsement of actions to support families and care-givers, strengthen social services, and improve housing and living environments for older persons.

Home to more than two-thirds of the world's population, the Asian and the Pacific region also houses the largest number of older persons - with more than 320 million people aged 60 and over. In China alone, there are 132 million people in this age group - or more than the combined total populations of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

Japan, which like China is also a member of UNESCAP, has the world's second oldest population. More than 23 per cent of Japan's inhabitants are aged 60 or over.

While Japan has a developed economy, many countries in the Asian and Pacific region have few social programmes in place to care for rapidly ageing populations.

"It is a sad fact that older persons remain among the poorest in many countries in the region," said UNESCAP Executive Secretary Mr. Kim Hak-Su. "The lack of adequate social protection and security has made their effort to achieve a decent living in old age an uphill battle."

Although the median age in developed countries has been on the increase for several years, this phenomenon is now affecting many Asian and Pacific societies as well due to declining birth rates and increased life expectancies.

UNESCAP has advised regional Governments to better prepare for their rapidly ageing societies and their participation in this follow-up seminar was "testimony to the importance that their governments have attached to ageing-related issues," Mr. Kim said.

In June of this year UNESCAP conducted a regional survey on ageing related issues and found 80 per cent of those countries surveyed had adopted policies, legislation or had established national mechanisms to address ageing-related issues. "Compared with the survey in 2000, this indicates notable progress," Mr. Kim said.

The Shanghai Seminar was one of the first major regional meetings to follow the Second World Assembly on Ageing, held earlier this year in Madrid when the international community set out a blueprint for action to deal with issues relating to this demographic change. In 1999, countries in Asia and the Pacific also adopted the Macao Plan of Action on Ageing in Asia and the Pacific, which identified seven major areas of concern on ageing and charted priorities for action in the region. The following links detail the outcome of these initiatives: http://www.unfpa.org/news/2002/pressroom/ageing_end.htm on Madrid, and http://www.unescap.org/ageing/macau.htm on the Macao Plan of Action.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Jerrold W. Huguet
Chief, Social Policy and Integration
of Disadvantaged Groups Section,
Emerging Social Issues Division
UNESCAP, Bangkok
Tel. +66 (0)2 288 1590

or

Mr. David Lazarus
Chief, United Nations Information Services
UNESCAP, Bangkok
Tel. +66 (0)2 288 1864-9
Email: unisbkk.unescap@un.org

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