Aging, along with and its moral and practical implications is so visible that most societies have had to establish norms to deal with it, but as Thomas R Cole, et al, observed in The Meaning of Aging and the Future of Social Security, “the ancient and medieval understandings of aging as a mysterious part of the eternal order of things gradually gave way to the secular, scientific, and individualist tendencies of modernity. Old age was removed from its place as a way station along life’s spiritual journey and redefined as a problem to be solved by science and medicine. By the mid-twentieth century, older people were moved to society’s margins and defined primarily as patients or pensioners.” Notwithstanding the various national approaches, the issue of aging only meaningfully arrived on the international agenda at the first World Assembly on Aging in 1982 and since the aspirations of that Assembly have not substantially changed, they provides both an historical perspective and a useful backdrop against which we may consider our own situation.
Of course, a level of international recognition existed before 1982. For example, the United Nations Declaration on Social Progress and Development in 1969 insisted that the aged have welfare needs that had to be enhanced. The 1974 Vienna World Population Plan of Action urged all governments to devise development policies that take fully into account the implications of the changing numbers of the aged in the population, and in 1977, the UN’s Economic and Social Council dealt specifically with the issue of the aged and this led to the World Assembly in 1982.
The Assembly made a plethora of general and specific recommendations. It recognised that specific plans were the responsibility of each sovereign state but suggested that such plans should be based, inter alia, on the principle that development must improve the well-being of the entire population. “The development process must enhance human dignity and ensure equity among age groups in the sharing of society’s resources, rights and responsibilities. Individuals, regardless of age, sex or creed should contribute according to their abilities and be served according to their needs.”
It also conceded that the problems that the aged must confront can best be solved in an environment where there is general respect for human rights and proceeded to claim that: “governments and in particular, local authorities, non-governmental organisations, individual volunteers and voluntary organisations, including associations of the elderly, can make a particularly significant contribution to the provision of support and care for elderly people … and … governments should sustain and encourage voluntary activities of this kind.”
In the specific case of the health and nutrition of the elderly, the Vienna Plan of Action provided stakeholders with some 50 recommendations. Among these are that: “Care designed to alleviate the handicaps, reeducate remaining functions, relieve pain, maintain the lucidity, comfort and dignity of the affected and help them to re-orient their hopes and plans, particularly in the case of the elderly are just as important as curative treatment.” Further, the fundamental principle of elderly care should be to encourage the living of independent lives and care of the elderly should not be left solely to care personnel since aging persons know best what is in their interest.
1999 was declared the International Year of the Older Person by the UN but it was not until the second World Assembly held in Madrid in 2002 that the international community took another comprehensive look at welfare of the elderly. Much has changed in the intervening period: issues relating to the survival of national pension and medical schemes, aging populations and falling birth rates, etc have made ageing one of the most important issues of world population dynamics. The elderly population is increasing almost everywhere and the over-65 population, which was about 9% of world population in 2010, is expected to grow to some 15% in 2025 and 24% by 2050.
Assessing the achievement of its predecessor, the Second World Assembly acknowledged that, particularly for developing countries, the implementation of the Vienna Plan was uneven largely because of low political priority and the inability to garner sufficient financial and other resources. The Madrid Assembly produced a successor plan, which aimed “to ensure that persons everywhere are able to age with security and dignity and to continue to participate in their societies as citizens with full rights. … Chief among the recommendations are to promote the participation of older persons as citizens with full rights, and to assure that persons everywhere are able to age with security and dignity.”
Where the Madrid Plan departs importantly from the Vienna Plan is in the policy approach it recommended. It came at a period when it had become widely recognised that the problems facing various social groups – women, youths and other marginalized sectors – are best dealt with in a holistic manner. Thus it recommended the “mainstreaming” of policies having to do with the elderly. The UN has defined “mainstreaming” as: “…the process of assessing the implications for (older persons) of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making older persons’ concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres.”
Although older persons may have different issues and needs from younger people, this does not mean that these interests necessarily conflict. What it does mean is that policy makers should consider the needs, activities, resources, benefits and the direct and indirect impacts of policies and programmes on people of all ages. “Mainstreaming is essential if this outcome is to be achieved.”
Needless to say that such a comprehensive approach does not exist in Guyana, but it should be established if the elderly are to be given an equitable opportunity to live good lives. Before examining the age-related policies that exist in Guyana, to add a further perspective, I will next week briefly consider a few national best practices.
