AGEING IN THE ARAB COUNTRIES: REGIONAL VARIATIONS, POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES
AGEING IN THE ARAB COUNTRIES: REGIONAL VARIATIONS, POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES
Distr. LIMITED - 04-0072 E/ESCWA/SDD/2004/WG.1/2
11 February 2004
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR WESTERN ASIA
INTRODUCTION
Population ageing is the outcome of demographic transition. Reductions in infant, child and maternal
mortality in addition to decreases in fertility rates during the second half of the past century have resulted in an increase of older populations across the world with the concomitant impact on socio-economic development.1
While this growth of the old population is a global phenomenon, there are significant regional
disparities. Typically, developed countries have experienced higher growth rates of their older populations given comparatively low mortality rates, which stabilized in the early 1970s, and lower fertility, which have reached or have been below replacement level since the 1990s. By contrast, the decline of fertility rates is relatively a new trend in the Arab region and, therefore, the process of ageing is at an earlier stage.
However, this process is expected to accelerate in Arab countries given a number of factors that
compound demographic ageing and which are largely absent in developed countries. Most prominent among these is the age-selective migration of labour that arises from the political uncertainty and prevailing economic conditions in the region, particularly high unemployment rates. The interplay of the emigration of young adults with the ongoing fertility and mortality transition accelerates demographic ageing and increases the dependency burden on the State in the areas of health, housing and social security for a growing number of senior citizens.
Unfortunately, the majority of Arab countries have underestimated the importance of this issue and are
not anticipating the future repercussions on national economies caused by such a demographic transition. Consequently, there is an urgent need for renewed thinking on this matter and for strategies to tackle the challenges posed by a growing elderly population.
This study aims to highlight those challenges by exploring relevant policies and programmes that have
been formulated by Arab countries, and by presenting some alternative strategies.2
Chapter I underscores the
ageing trends in the Arab region, whose future prospects and consequences are further developed in chapters II and III, respectively.
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Reductions in infant, child and maternal
mortality in addition to decreases in fertility rates during the second half of the past century have resulted in an increase of older populations across the world with the concomitant impact on socio-economic development.1
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1 In this study, the old are defined as persons aged 60 years and older.
رابط[عدل]
http://www.monitoringris.org/documents/strat_reg/unescwa1.pdf
