WUNRN
World Health Organization - WHO
OCTOBER 1 - INTERNATIONAL DAY OF
OLDER PERSONS - OLDER WOMEN
Older People - A New Power for
Development
A demographic revolution is underway throughout the world. Today, world-wide, there are around 600 million persons aged 60 years and over; this total will double by 2025 and will reach virtually two billion by 2050 - the vast majority of them in the developing world.
In our fast ageing world, older people will increasingly play a critical role - through volunteer work, transmitting experience and knowledge, helping their families with caring responsibilities and increasing their participation in the paid labour force.
Already
now, older persons make major contributions to society. For instance,
throughout
It is not only in developing countries that older persons' role in development is critical. In Spain for example, caring for dependent and sick individuals (of all ages) is mostly done by older people (particularly older women); the average number of minutes per day spent in providing such care increases exponentially with the carers' age: 201 minutes if the carer is in the age group 65-74 and 318 minutes if aged 75-84 - compared to only 50 minutes if the carer is in the age group 30-49 (Durán H, Fundación BBVA, 2002).
Such
contributions to development can only be ensured if older persons enjoy
adequate levels of health, for which appropriate policies need to be in place.
In line with the