President Hotel Kyiv welcomed the guests of the “International short training program in ageing policy formulation, planning and implementation in Ukraine” organized by UNFPA Ukraine jointly with the International Institute on Ageing, United Nations-Malta (INIA), under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine.
The event was opened by UNFPA Representative for Ukraine Ms. Nuzhat Ehsan, who stressed the importance of substantive technical capacity development of the relevant governmental agencies and other key stakeholders of Ukraine to collaboratively address the forthcoming social and economic effects of population ageing in our country.
“UNFPA has been an active and perhaps the only international agency addressing the development challenges of population ageing in Ukraine since 2007”, stated UNFPA Representative. “Currently we are closely collaborating with the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine on reviewing and improving the existing legislation related to older persons, introducing national standards of social services for the elderly, doing research and analysis in the area of population ageing, and promoting international partnerships for the benefit of older persons”.
Rapidly the world is getting older. In 2000, for the first time in world history there were more people over age 60 than children below age 5.
According to the UNFPA data, by 2050, 33 countries are expected to have 10 million people aged 60 or over, including five countries with more than 50 million older people. Out of these 33 countries, 22 are currently classified as developing countries. The population aged 60 or over is growing at a faster rate than the total population in almost all world regions.
Ukraine is and will remain one of the ‘oldest’ countries in the world. According to demographic projections, the share of people at the age of 60 and older will reach 33% by 2050 in Ukraine.
UNFPA will continue to promote implementation of the best practices that exist in this sphere to strengthen national responses to population ageing by public-private and civil society partnerships, inter-ministerial coordination and cooperation, and to encourage the promotion of the healthy ageing lifestyle in Ukraine.
