Universal pensions of just $1 a day in developing countries would significantly reduce old age poverty, a United Nations report has said.
The World Economic and Social Survey 2007 called that "an affordable option" for heading off the problems of aging as the growth in the numbers of elderly accelerate in poor nations, catching up with a trend already evident in wealthy countries.
Jose Antonio Ocampo, UN undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, said even a basic benefit equivalent to the extreme poverty level of $1 a day would achieve the long-term UN goal of eliminating the worst privation "for all the older people now."
At a news conference, Ocampo said aging populations is "a phenomenon that is universal now," - with the number of people 60 and older expected to increase from about 670 million in 2005 to close to 2 billion in 2050.
"Although the phenomenon is more advanced in the industrial economies, it's going to grow at a much faster rate in the developing world," he said.
At current trends, by 2050 almost 80 percent of the world's elderly - nearly 1.6 billion people - will live in what are now developing countries, the report said. That compares with 63 per cent, or 422 million people, in 2005.
Ocampo said it is unlikely the economic challenge of an aging and declining work force can be solved through increased fertility and migration. The world, he said, will have to bring more women into the work force, to lengthen the work lives of all workers, "and finally and very importantly to increase labor productivity."
AP
"It is quite clear that if there is not an increase in labor productivity in the rapidly aging societies, there will actually be a slowdown in economic growth that will affect everyone," Ocampo said.
The report said the expansion of pension coverage and increases in benefits have been important factors in lowering the portion of older Americans living in poverty from 35 per cent in 1960 to less than 10 per cent today.
It said 80 per cent of the world's population does not have sufficient income protection in old age to enable them to face health problems, disability or income loss, citing the latest available statistics from the International Labor Organization in 2002.
The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which prepared the report, said its research assessed the cost of a $365 annual pension to all those over age 60 in 100 countries and found that for 66 countries the cost would be less than 1 percent of their gross domestic product in 2005.