wfn.org | Global Action on Aging

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CONTACT: 	Linda Bloom
(10-21-71B){167}
		New York (212) 870-3803		      March 23, 1998

NOTE: This is accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS story #168.

Issues facing aging population
need global focus, expert says

	NEW YORK (UMNS) -- As life spans increase and pension guarantees
dwindle, issues such as access to employment and good health care have
become just as important to older people as their younger counterparts.
	Suzanne Paul, a former executive with the United Methodist Board
of Global Ministries, founded Global Action on Aging to bring attention
to the needs of that population and encourage participation in the
United Nations' International Year of Older Persons in 1999.
	"What lies ahead in a world where there soon will be a billion
people over age 60 -- nearly one in five -- living without a capacity to
earn a living and a minimal ability to buy basic necessities like
shelter, heat, clothing and food in the marketplace?" she asked during a
speech to the Congress of Public Services International in Yokohama,
Japan, last November.
	For Paul, the answers range from re-thinking the traditional
system of employment to seeking new possibilities for funding through a
globalized economy to reconsidering the contributions of older persons
to society.
	Global Action on Aging was incorporated in 1994, after Paul and
her husband, Jim, had written a book on the subject, Humanity Comes of
Age, published by the World Council of Churches. Now in its third
printing, the book will be used as a study guide during the 1999 United
Methodist Schools of Mission.
	Paul's book was published during a time of transition for
agencies on aging.
	"At that point, many denominational desks for aging were being
closed or merged into family ministries," she recalled.
Members of the National Interfaith Coalition on Aging approached Paul
about starting an organization that would focus on global aging issues
and develop resources useful for the religious community. 
	Paul, who was chairperson of the Nongovernmental (NGO) Council
on Aging at the United Nations, also provided a link to the United
Nations.
	She participated in three U.N. conferences -- the 1994
International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt,
the 1995 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, Denmark, and
the 1995 Fourth Conference on Women in Beijing.
	At all of those events, the U.N. Secretariat "looked to the NGO
community to express what needs and opportunities existed for older
people," Paul said.
	The Board of Global Ministries' Women's Division hosted a
leadership lunch for Global Action on Aging last spring to start
planning for 1999. Representatives from 35 national women's
organizations, both religious and secular, attended, and a follow-up
training event is scheduled for August in Nashville.
The United Nations considers the position of older people as indicative
of a nation's social development, according to Paul. Countries where
people are able to reach the age of 60 "is an indicator of a good
society," she added. "It's a benchmark."
	But what happens after the age of 60 is a matter of increasing
concern. For example, the push -- from the World Bank and International
Monetary Fund on down -- to privatize public pension funds could have an
adverse effect on older people, who must stretch such income to age 90
or beyond, she said.
	In the United States, according to Paul, major financial
institutions that "stand to benefit in the billions of dollars" are
waging a campaign to privatize Social Security. The threat is that such
an action will sharply reduce income, leading to the "pauperization of
older people," she said.
	Other concerns include access to health care and work, and the
ability of older persons to have "meaningful participation in society,"
she said. Another issue is that current patterns of global migration
often mean today's children are no longer physically around to care for
parents or grandparents.
	More information on Global Action on Aging is available through
its World Wide Web site at www.globalaging.org.

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