Global Aging Issues
Interview with Mr. Shashi Tharoor
Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information of the United Nations / News Release
October 13, 2006
Aging is a global phenomenon. Nearly five years ago, the United Nations held its second World Assembly on Ageing after a 20 year departure. Even as the developed world's population ages rapidly, developing countries, too, are facing the same phenomenon. Today, the importance of UN's role in bringing together states grows just as fast.
The AARP Global Aging Program recently spoke with Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information of the United Nations, about the impact of global aging and what role the UN is playing.
Global Aging Program: Having held two World Assemblies on Ageing (Vienna 1982 and Madrid 2002), the United Nations has led the way to bring the aging of our global population to the attention of the world. UN Member States adopted two important plans of action on these occasions. What do you see as the major challenges for the United Nations with respect to population aging in the future?
Shashi Tharoor: It was decided in Madrid that aging issues should be moved upward on the world’s agenda. For the UN, this means we need to incorporate the needs of older persons and their input in national poverty reduction plans, in the targeting of development assistance and in the strategies adopted at global conferences. They need to be taken account of in our field work in the developing world and in our analytical work at Headquarters.
GAP: According to demographic projections published by the United Nations, the world’s 60-plus population in the less and least developed countries is expected to double by 2050. What do you think developing countries should be doing to prepare for this historic demographic revolution? Are there lessons to be learned from the experience of the developed nations of the world that might help developing countries meet this new challenge?
ST: Right now, only eight per cent of the population in the developing countries is aged 60 years or more. With the decline in birth rates and longer life spans over time -- due in large part to improved health conditions – those 60 or above are projected to reach 18 per cent of the population in these countries by 2050. That people are living longer is not a problem; it’s very good news. It will mean, however, that a progressively smaller part of the population engaged in economically remunerative activities will need to support an ever-larger share who are likely to be retired or incapacitated. Some of the pressure on this “support ratio” will be offset by a projected smaller share of children in developing populations.
Making sure that support is there for older people in the developing countries will be one of the biggest challenges of the current century. Some developing countries have already initiated modest social pension systems (covering everyone, not just the small minority who have jobs in the formal sector with retirement plans). Others are providing support for inter-generational cohesion, for instance, making cash payments to parents of HIV/AIDS victims who are caring for their orphaned grandchildren.
The build-up of health systems -- which in turn will better serve the needs of older populations -- is being aided by the focus on human needs at the center of the UN Millennium Development Goals. Acceleration of efforts to fulfil the goals by both donors and developing countries is therefore crucial. So is incorporating older people as active agents in development activities. At some point, the developing countries will need to pick up on measures that are emerging in the developed world: to extend the retirement age, preferably on a voluntary basis, for instance; and to institute job training for older people. These approaches will become more feasible, and more necessary, as the population share of the younger ages starts to diminish and there is greater demand for older people in the work force.
GAP: In 2007, the special theme of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development will be “The changing age structures of populations and their implications for development”. Why did the Commission adopt this theme? Do you believe that older persons could be an important resource for development?
ST: It is because of the challenges discussed above, I believe, that the governments on the population commission chose the 2007 theme. And the UN firmly contends that older people can and must be resources for development. In all countries there are examples of people over 60 -- or over 80 for that matter -- who are at the top of their fields in terms of business, politics, science, the arts. Older people can take jobs to fill sectoral labor shortages. They help to hold families and communities together and to provide continuity of social and cultural heritages. They have the wisdom and experience that are assets in any planning or strategizing situation.
GAP: Every year, the UN Department of Public Information releases its list of the world’s ten most under-reported stories. This year, one of the stories was the problem encountered in providing relief efforts in the aftermath of the South Asian earthquake and tsunami. In an event of this magnitude, people of all ages suffer but older people are often particularly vulnerable and forgotten. What lessons have been learned about problems in providing relief and how have older people fared in the aftermath of this major catastrophe?
ST: Yes, when disaster strikes, older persons are among the most vulnerable. They have a harder time fleeing and are more vulnerable to disease, hunger and cold which often come in the aftermath. And experience has shown that in past situations, their special needs have too often been overlooked. The UN now tailors relief packages to give priority to the most vulnerable, including older people. They also strive to make a point of informing older people of special entitlements for which they may be eligible. Relief workers should be able to identify what the livelihoods of elderly victims were before the disaster, and to find options if those means are no longer viable.
GAP: AARP’s Global Aging Program is organizing a major conference on “Reinventing Retirement – Asia” to take place in Tokyo in March 2007. The majority of the world’s older population lives in Asia (54 percent). While there are significant differences among Asian countries, it is widely recognized that the speed of population aging in countries such as China and India will challenge this part of the world more than perhaps any other region. What suggestions might you offer to AARP to ensure that this conference is a useful and informative event for the Asian participants who will be striving in their respective countries to bring population aging to the attention of policy makers?
ST: There are a lot of aspects to a large-scale conference. Communications is one of them. Based on our experience in the Department of Public Information, where we’ve worked on more than a dozen global mega-conferences since the mid-1990s, I think it’s important to put out press materials that are both striking and enlightening, to contact journalists in advance, to identify forceful and articulate spokespeople and give them platforms in front of cameras and on op-ed pages. The messages should identify compelling needs and practical means to achieve them.
Biography
Born in London in 1956, Shashi Tharoor was educated in Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi (BA in History, St. Stephen's College), and the United States (he got his PhD at the age of 22 from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University).
Since 1978, he has worked for the United Nations, serving with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, whose Singapore office he headed during the "boat people" crisis. Since October 1989, he has been a senior official at UN HQ in New York, where, until late 1996, he was responsible for peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia. From January 1997 to July 1998, he was executive assistant to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. In July 1998, he was appointed director of communications and special projects in the office of the Secretary-General. In January 2001, he was appointed by the Secretary-General as interim head of the Dept. of Public Information. On 1 June 2002, he was confirmed as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information of the United Nations.
Tharoor is the author of numerous articles, short stories and commentaries in Indian and Western publications, and the winner of several journalism and literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
His books include Reasons of State (1982), a scholarly study of Indian foreign policy; The Great Indian Novel (1989), a political satire; The Five-Dollar Smile & Other Stories (1990); a second novel, Show Business (1992), which received a front-page accolade from The New York Times Book Review and was made into a motion picture titled Bollywood; and India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997), published on the 50th anniversary of India's independence.
On August 13, 2001 Penguin Books (India) published Tharoor's latest novel Riot. The US edition was published by Arcade on September 28, 2001.