Green Tent calls for strategic plans to benefit from capabilities, experiences of elderly

A Flower Each Spring

Participants in the "The Green Tent," affiliated with "A Flower Each Spring" programme have called for the need to develop strategic plans to benefit from the experiences of the elderly in all fields. This is because many countries will face political and financial pressures due to the rapid increase in the number of elderly people to adopt healthy food systems and development in healthcare services. During the seminar titled "Retirement is an inevitable phenomenon, what have we prepared for it", Dr Saif bin Ali al-Hajri, head of the "A Flower Each Spring" programme, expects aging to be one of the most prominent social transformations in the third millennium, because of its impact on all sectors of the labour and financial markets, and the demand for goods and services (housing, transportation, social protection etc). He explained that the prediction for 2050 indicate that one out of every six individuals in the world will be over 65 years old and that the number of people over the age of 80, will triple what they are now, pointing out that the United Nations General Assembly in 1982 had held a Conference on aging, which resulted in a plan of action in the areas of health and nutrition, protection of the elderly consumer, housing and the environment, family, social care, work, and income security, education, and the collecting and analysing of research data, leading to the allocation of the International Day of Older Persons, which is celebrated on the first of October each year. A number of challenges can be observed in the work sector with the elderly, foremost of which is poverty that drives them to continue working to support their families, and wars and famines that most affect vulnerable groups, especially if old age is associated with a disability, Dr al-Hajri added.