1) The document discusses how technology has dramatically increased life expectancy over the past century, from 43 years in 1945 to 75 years currently. 2) It credits technologies like water supply, vaccines, and early disease detection with controlling death and improving health, leading to both increased life expectancy and a decline in fertility rates. 3) However, hundreds of millions of older people around the world still do not have access to the technologies that could help them, and in developing countries 80% of older persons do not have a basic income.

1. Setting the scene
Ageing and technology in the 21st
century
Prague, May 2012
Alexandre Kalache
President - International Longevity Centre - Brazil
Senior Policy Advisor on Global Ageing, New York Academy of Medicine
HelpAge International Global Ambassador

2. Allow me to be personal
Life expectancy in 1945 when I was
born was 43 years – today: 75
32 year-gain in my life time
In 1945 TFR was 7
5.8 in mid 1970s – and now, 1,8

3. WHY?
THE INFUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY IN
CONTROLLING DEATH AND
IMPROVING HEALTH OVER THE LAST
FEW DECADES HAS GIVEN US THE
GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT OF THE 20th
CENTURY.

4. What kind of technology?
Engineering
Water supply
Environmental control
Green Revolution
Vaccines
New drugs
Early disease detection devices...
etc...etc

5. In the 21st century, much
more to come – with
tremendous implications to
the way we age for those who
will have access to such
wonders.

6. The speed of the ageing
process...
... and the role of technology in the
decline of Fertility Rates

7. Women today aged 70 +
...did not benefit from the
technological revolution that might have
helped them to control their number of
children.
They spent their younger adult
years caring for their children, then
parents, now partners – without being
at all sure if there will be someone
there to care for them when/if
needed...

8. The unprecedented speed of
ageing

9. ...particularly in the South.

10. THE DIVERSITY OF OLD AGE
Gender
SES
Age groups
Culture
Ethnicity
Rural/Urban
Sexual identity
Nationality
Religion...
etc... etc...

11. Ageing – the contrasts

12. Hundreds of millions are left
out of the technologies
WE take for granted.

13. Too many labels: confusing!
• Productive
• Positive
• Ageing well
• Successful
• Healthy
• Vital
• Active

14. WHO definition of Active
Ageing:
The process of optimizing the
opportunities for Health,
Participation and Security in
order to enhance quality of life
as individuals age
Kalache - Consultorias

15. The 4
Pillar:
th
Life long learning
International Conference on Active Ageing, Seville, 2010

16. Embracing a Rights-based
approach – implying:
• The Right to Health
• The Right to Learn
• The Right to Work
• The Right to be Protected
• The Right to be Insured
• The Right to Participate
• The Right not to be neglected, abused,
abandoned...as well as...

17. • The Right to Stop
• The Right to Rest

18. Strengthening international
mechanisms for the protection
of Rights of Older Persons

19. The need for an International
CONVENTION

20. Emphasis on “productivity”
can be misplaced.

21. In developing countries 80%
of Older Persons do not have
basic income
On the whole they are highly
productive... and deeply
unprotected.

22. Older People as resources to
their families, communities
and the Economy.

23. The impact of the global
financial crisis
In Spain: 25% unemployment rate, over
50% within the age group 15-24!
However, within contexts such as thes,
older people often become the main
source of income for the whole family.

24. Yet...in terms of policies we
are still doing nearly
everything wrong
...stuck within a 19th century mind frame:
compulsory retirement; little thought
given to graduated retirement; lack of
training opportunities which limits
individuals’ ability to reinvent
themselves as they age .

25. Bismarck was right in
1881...
But since then 130 years have
passed, LEB has increased to
80+ in at least 20 countries –
and counting. Yet we are still
by and large trapped in the
same policies.

26. ULTIMATELY WHAT IS
NEEDED, IS TO FIGHT FOR
INCLUSION.

27. A NO TO ALL FORMS OF EXCLUSION
Kalache - Consultorias

28. Institutional
Kalache - Consultorias

29. Socio-economic
Kalache - Consultorias

30. Territorial
Kalache - Consultorias

31. Identity
Kalache - Consultorias

32. Social capital
Kalache - Consultorias

33. Socio-political
Kalache - Consultorias

34. WHERE ARE WE NOW!??

35. Important neglected issues
• Migration and ageing
• LTC
• Ethical issues
• Crisis/emergencies
• Life course of exclusion
• Intergenerational solidarity/global crisis
• Controlling the anti-ageing industry....
• etc....etc

36. Re-inventing the life course:
...intertwining periods for learning, for
being “productive”, for raising children,
for caring, for recharging batteries...for
starting again...at whatever age.

37. The emergence of a new
transition
Baby boomers “created” the social
construct of adolescence – because of
the numbers, the unprecedented levels
of education and good health and
because they lived in Peace and relative
wealth.
What a luxury compared to any preceding
cohort!!

38. GERONTOLESCENCE
Now...we are starting to “create” a
new transition...we are:
gerontolescents.

39. The difference is that while
adolescence lasts for 4 or 5
years, gerontolescence will
last for 2, 3 decades.

40. Developing a culture of
ageing…
Kalache - Consultorias

41. Planning for Diversity...

42. And promoting solidarity
Between the rich and the poor
Men and women
Developed and developing
Different ethnicities
...countries, cultures, religions
and, above all...

43. Solidarity between the old and
the young.
Pedro Kalache, 2003