Subject: [fem-women2000 780] Women's GlobalNet #191: UN Second Assembly on Ageing
From: iwtc <iwtc@iwtc.org>
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 19:22:38 +0000
Seq: 780

IWTC WOMEN'S GLOBALNET #191
Initiatives and Activities of Women Worldwide
By Anne S. Walker 

April 10 2002

The following article on the United Nations Second Assembly on Ageing 
appeared in the New York Times on April 9 2002. In a paragraph towards 
the end, you will note the following:

"The United Nations Population Fund commissioned a study of the elderly 
in South Africa and India, and concluded that urbanization, migration, 
the breakdown of traditional social structures and the AIDS crisis has 
forced many older people, especially women, into extreme poverty and 
isolation."

The Second World Assembly On Ageing (WAA2) meets in Madrid, Spain from  
8-12 April 2002. 
Website: <http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/ageing/waa/>

To subscribe to the AGEING ASSEMBLY LISTSERV: 
E-mail:  <ageingassembly-subscribe@yahoogroups.com>

__________________________________________________

UN Says Elderly Will Outnumber Young For The First Time. 
By Emma Daley
 
MADRID, April 8:  A million people now turn 60 every month, a 
demographic revolution that will mean older people will outnumber the 
young for the first time in history, according to the United Nations' 
Second Assembly on Ageing, which opened here today, 20 years after the 
organization's first conference addressing the issue. 

Three-quarters of the people over 60 live in the developing world, while 
even rich nations have long wondered how they will continue to finance 
pensions and health care for future generations. 

"Aging is definitely no longer just a first-world issue," said the 
United Nations' secretary general, Kofi Annan, who opened the five-day 
conference. "What was a footnote in the 20th century is on its way to 
becoming a dominant theme in the 21st." 

The United Nations estimates that the number of people over 60 will rise 
to two billion in 2050, from 600 million today, with the "oldest old," 
those 80 or older, increasing to 350 million from 70 million. Delegates 
from more than 160 countries are supposed to agree on an international 
plan to ease the difficulties faced by the elderly and to consider how 
best to harness their unused talents.

"We need to recognize that as more people are better educated, live 
longer and stay healthy longer, older persons can and do make greater 
contributions to society than ever before," Mr. Annan told the 
delegates. He used his 64th birthday on Sunday to quote the Beatles: 
"Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?" adding, 
"I trust the answer is yes."

But for many millions of older people, especially the rural poor in 
developing nations, food, water, electricity, medical care and security 
are still in scarce supply. The United Nations Population Fund 
commissioned a study of the elderly in South Africa and India, and 
concluded that urbanization, migration, the breakdown of traditional 
social structures and the AIDS crisis has forced many older people, 
especially women, into extreme poverty and isolation.

Thousands of older people who once expected to be supported by their 
children have instead watched them die of AIDS, leaving children to be 
cared for by grandparents who do not even know how the disease is 
contracted and who have no money to pay for food or medicine.

The Group of 77 developing nations and China have proposed a new United 
Nations agency like the children's fund, Unicef, to coordinate programs 
for the elderly.

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