12 April 2002

Madrid, Spain: Carrying forward momentum from the International Year of Volunteers 2001 (IYV), government representatives and UN officials addressing this week's Second World Assembly on Ageing called for further initiatives to urge the world's older persons to take up active roles in society through volunteer action.

"The world is awakening to the realization that millions of elderly people also represent a largely untapped and under appreciated resource," said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Seniors can bring a wealth of skills and experience to the workplace, to public life and to their families, she said, adding: "As volunteers, older people can assist the cause of social and economic development the world over while bringing more people into their ranks."

Delegates to the Assembly on Friday agreed on a final document which, among other points, recommends that countries "create an enabling environment for volunteering at all ages, including public recognition, and facilitate the participation of older persons who may have little or no access to the benefits of engaging in volunteering".

"By incorporating volunteering into the International Plan of Action on Ageing 2002, you are providing an inspiration to all stakeholders around the world that volunteering is a key way that older persons can remain active and productive and can maintain their self-esteem," Sharon Capeling-Alakija, Executive Coordinator of the Bonn-based United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV), told the Assembly.

She said the Assembly's Plan of Action builds upon the UN General Assembly resolution (A/RES/56/38) on volunteering, which was adopted on 5 December 2001, by calling on older persons to participate in the economic, political, and social lives of their societies, including through voluntary work. This recognition, she noted, was absent from the International Plan of Action on Ageing adopted at the First World Assembly on Ageing in Vienna 20 years ago.

The Second Assembly's text also states that voluntary activity in the community is one area where older persons make valuable contributions which are not measured in economic terms but which contribute to the growth and maintenance of personal well-being. "This recognition of the reciprocal benefits derived from voluntary action is only now beginning to be widely recognized," she added.

Several other key speakers spoke out in support of volunteer activity by older people.

"The International Year of Volunteers was a highly welcome support for our efforts to highlight the relevance of older persons for the well-being of the community," said Herbert Haupt, Austria's Federal Minister of Social Security and Generations.

Older persons, he said, constitute an "enormous potential" for cross-generational voluntary activities, adding that older persons are "more than mere passive recipients". Voluntary work, he said, "is indispensable not just for the community but it also offers older people who have retired from active working life a possibility to find a new source for self-realization - truly in line with the concept of active ageing".

Singapore's Minister of State for Community Development and Sports, Mr. Chan Soon Sen, said: "Our seniors are a valuable resource and opportunities should be created to tap on their wisdom, talent and energy. Examples of such programmes include mutual help, befriending, and a senior volunteer movement."

Slovenian Minister for Labour, Family and Social Affairs, Dr. Vlado Dimovski, notes that seniors are active in large numbers in many of his country's non-governmental organizations and voluntary associations. "The basic mission of these organizations, which unite the elderly, is to prevent their social exclusion and to reduce the stereotyped image of the elderly being merely users of various services," he said.

Germany's Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Dr. Christine Bergmann, said measures needed to be taken to strengthen the involvement of older persons in voluntary activities in local communities. For example, German older persons visiting senior citizens' offices are matched to opportunities for voluntary work and are "encouraged to and coached in actively putting their ideas into practice".

The US Assistant Secretary for Ageing, Josefina G. Carbonell, said her government was "urging seniors to stay socially active, especially through volunteering in their communities". In March, she said, President George W. Bush announced the USA Freedom Corps, a new programme that offers service opportunities to Americans of all ages.

Juan Suárez del Toro Rivero, President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said many of the IFRC's 100 million volunteers worldwide are older people. He called on governments to "ensure that older people are not discriminated against in their volunteering (e.g. through insurance provisions) and ensure that legislation in their country creates an enabling environment for volunteerism". These measures, he said, "will go far towards upholding several of the United Nations Principles for Older Persons, namely participation, self-fulfilment and dignity". Many delegations, such as those representing Egypt, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sri Lanka and Tunisia, also mentioned the contributions of volunteering by and for older persons. Read the full statements of speakers at the Second World Assembly on Ageing at: www.un.org/ageing/coverage/statements.htm

Late Thursday, the IFRC President and the UNV Executive Coordinator co-chaired a special discussion on voluntary action and older persons that was attended by Spanish parliamentarians, heads of government delegations as well as representatives of the private sector and civil society.

According to "World Population Ageing 1950-2050," published by the UN Population Division and released this month, the global population of persons 60 years or older is growing by about 2 per cent each year, faster than the population as a whole, and will reach nearly 2 billion by the middle of this century. The report notes that at the start of the 21st century, there were some 600 million older persons, triple the number recorded 50 years earlier. By 2050, the world's population of seniors is expected to triple again. During the same period, the proportion of older persons in the world has steadily climbed from 8 per cent in 1950 to 10 per cent in 2000 before projecting to jump to nearly one-in-five by mid-century.