Mr. Chairman

Let me join all the delegations that have spoken before in congratulating you and your bureau for being elected to this esteemed office. My delegation has all the confidence in your capabilities and you can be assured of our support.

May I also congratulate the government and people of Spain for hosting this memorable and important World Assembly. The commitment of the Spanish government to the issues concerning ageing and the elderly definitely sets the tone of this gathering. The work of the Goodwill Ambassadors, including Her Royal Highness Princess Dona Cristina leaves no doubt in our minds on how high we should go in elevating the elderly on our development agenda.

I should also thank the Spanish government for the financial support put forward to facilitate the participation of Least Developed Countries.

Mr. Chairman, Malawi has done progressively well in addressing issues of older persons. Available statistics indicate that 4.7% of the population of 11 million Malawians can be described as falling in the category of the aged, according to the United Nations cut off point. Most of these live in rural areas.

Malawi realizes that ageing permeates throughout her various endeavours and therefore strives to mainstream issues of ageing in most social sector plans. In realizing the complexity of issues surrounding ageing, the government has allowed the creation of partnership with the private sector, NGO fraternity and Religious Organizations in providing support to the aged.

Mr. Chairman, since most elderly persons live in the rural areas, it is government's wish to ensure that they continue to be supported within this set up through family and community institutions. And where such institutions can not cope with the problems associated with ageing, government and partners in the private and NGO fraternity are encouraged to provide the needed extra support to build up the institutional capacity.

The Malawi government has already put in place long term plans to address issues that affect the elderly persons directly. Some of the government initiatives in this direction include the recently introduced free housing scheme for the very poor elderly persons in the rural areas, the provision of free farm inputs to households with older persons, improvement of water and sanitation at community level, the introduction of various health related interventions in the rural areas, including the provision of Microcredit financing to poor rural women.

Mr. Chairman, in addition to these services, government of Malawi continues to review some laws which have a direct bearing on the welfare of older persons. The review of the Wills and Inheritance Act and the introduction of the Land Policy have availed opportunities for older persons to exercise their rights to property and land ownership, particularly for older women.

In spite of some headway in improving the welfare of our older persons, the government has also several challenges to surmount before the full benefit of its initiatives can be realized. The most pronounced challenge now is the HIV/AIDS scourge which has affected the most productive age group of 15 to 49 years. As more productive people die, the older people are left to provide support to orphans. Equally so, the death of young productive people due to AIDS means less economic transfers to the older persons. And this has a negative effect on their general welfare.

The second challenge is the effects of poverty on the rural communities particularly the aged. Because of the changing socio-economic environment due to globalization, older persons find themselves more vulnerable to the shocks created by these changes. Most often than not they become very vulnerable to food insecurity, and ill health.

Mr. Chairman, Malawi is aware that for the welfare of older persons to be fully realized, the family and community-based care should be encouraged as oposed to Institutional Care. This arrangement does provide an opportunity to reweave the social fabric and promote intergenerational inter-dependency, including skills and culture transfer.

As a long-term plan, the government has designed a Needs Assessment Survey to try to understand issues that affect older persons directly. The survey will form the basis for the design of the National policy on the Aged. In addition, the outcome of this World Assembly, the International Plan of Action on Ageing 2002, the Political Declaration and indeed, the ideas shared at this gathering will go a long way in informing policy formulation at the national level.

I thank you.