Mr. President,

The main reason for this World Assembly is to celebrate one of humanity's greatest successes: the increase that has been achieved in the life expectancy of men and women. The preparatory work for this event has provided us with clear facts and figures that attest to this new reality. I believe we all agree that the gradual ageing of the population marks a radical change in the human fabric of our societies.

I shall therefore focus on four main aspects which I believe are crucial to any action in this area.

· First, the fact that the useful life of individuals has been extended presents us with a great opportunity, rather than an intractable problem.

We often hear that the ageing of the population creates an additional burden on already struggling systems for the provision of work, health care, food, education, housing, services, infrastructure and social protection. These are problems which obviously need to be solved, but what is truly important here is the fact that for many older people, the extension of their useful life is also accompanied by a wish to go on being useful to the entire community. Our response to this must be that we do indeed want them to be part of the future.

Older people represent an accumulation of human wealth, a vast potential, which can obviously contribute creatively to the solution of the material problems I have referred to. They are also the key element in the transmission of a society's values, a decisive factor in passing on the cultural heritage from one generation to another. They are depositories of knowledge, experience, memories and wisdom. There is nothing more perilous than closing ourselves off from the way they look at the world. But that is what is now happening.

For instance, the progressive development of an economy that is indifferent to human needs and aspirations is also leading to a decline in the status, authority and influence of older people. The competitive dynamics of the current model of the global economy have transformed the senior citizen into a "burden" which economies try to shed at the earliest possible opportunity. This has to change.

· Secondly, the issue of ageing cannot be considered in isolation, but must be approached through integrated policies that can help people throughout their lives and contribute to strengthening the family.

Poverty and exclusion affect older people to a disproportionate degree. But the root causes of the problem do not lie only with them. On the contrary, the problems arise from a series of economic and social difficulties which affect different generations all at once, and which become concentrated within the family.

It is in the family that the consequences of unresolved problems all converge - problems such as child labour, the lack of opportunities for adolescent girls, youth unemployment, discrimination against women and inadequate provision of lifelong education and training.

Similarly, it is there that we clearly see the difficulty of integrating migrants, the problems of long-term unemployment, the growth of the informal economy, the precarity of employment and income, and the lack of social protection.

It is therefore not enough to have isolated policies aimed at solving the specific problems of older people. We have to approach the issue by way of an integrating vision which takes account of all the topics I have mentioned and other similar topics, and in which each individual problem is seen in relation to all the others when it comes to efforts to find solutions.

At the centre of this vision lies the family, and this is what makes it so important to promote policies that strengthen the family in its different forms as the fundamental unit of society, as the United Nations has defined it, with special consideration to single-parent families.

· Thirdly, full employment in decent conditions of employment is a viable and productive way of meeting the challenge of ageing.

The ageing of the population presents us with a real public policy dilemma. Countries face serious problems in terms of the viability of pensions schemes, public expenditure, implications for health care systems, and the risk of growing numbers of older people becoming marginalized and excluded.

Nevertheless, many of the concerns raised over the financing of social security systems tend to be made from a static view of the development of the economy. They are based on the assumption that growth will not create enough jobs for everybody and that, consequently, there will be fewer and fewer people contributing to the social security system, and an increasing number seeking to benefit from its services, for a longer period of time. 

I believe, however, that we should put greater emphasis on dynamic policies of economic growth and sustainable development, designed to provide a positive response, focusing on the creation of enterprises and decent work. Policies on social security financing would thus be developed in the context of a greater availability of resources.

Therefore we should not be thinking in terms of distributing the jobs currently available in a world of growing unemployment, but of creating more and better jobs. This is especially important for developing countries. In most of the developing world, less than 20 per cent of the workforce is covered by the social security system, and retirement is a luxury that few older people can afford.

Consequently, we must look for a way to extend social security systems gradually, with all the innovative ideas this will require, in order to provide the whole of the population with a minimum of social welfare and a reasonable income for their later years. The promotion of full employment is the best way to ensure such welfare provision and to afford people the guarantee of a pension when the time comes to leave active employment behind. 

· Fourthly, the chance to prolong one's working life is a promising alternative for society and deserves to be an option for older people who wish to do so.

Older people now have good reasons for wanting to remain in active employment beyond the retirement age. Furthermore, society needs their support. Retirement should not be brought forward artificially without taking individual decisions into account. 

But an enforced prolongation of working life is not appropriate for everyone. Of course, we must take into account the needs of people who have experienced poor conditions throughout their working life, those who have contributed for lengthy periods or who suffer from health problems. 

Women are especially vulnerable because, owing to the high numbers in unpaid, low-paid, part-time, frequently interrupted, or informal sector work, they tend to enjoy less access to pension schemes. 

We are looking to find new ways of providing suitable conditions and settings for willing older people to continue to give up their time, energy and experience. It is possible to find gradual arrangements that combine partial retirement with partial employment, or with voluntary work to address the social problems that exist in all our societies.

The most important thing is to ensure that older people have the opportunity to pursue productive activities, either paid or unpaid, which keep them connected and provide them with a continued sense of usefulness to society.

Mr. President,

All this presupposes the adoption of public and private policies that will create ways to facilitate individual decision making, which respect the dignity of the older person and the integrity of his or her family, and adapt to the conditions of each society.

Lastly, allow me to suggest that, to ensure that the values of this World Assembly on Ageing are fully taken into account, we must rid ourselves of the subjective stigma attached to the word "retirement".

In a way that is both revealing and unjust, this term links the moment at which an individual acquires the right to a pension with final exclusion from the life of his or her enterprise, community, society, or even family.

This World Assembly is guided by the concept of a society for all age groups. Let us make this event the milestone at which the international community resolves that all societies, in the light of their particular circumstances, should invite all older people to participate actively in the of society.

In order to achieve this, we must:

Do away with the word "retirement";
Strengthen social protection;
Boost productivity through full employment and decent work,

And above all, give back the

Security, respect and love 

that our senior citizens deserve.

Thank you.