Friday, 13 July 2018, 4:30 – 6:30 pm UN Headquarters, Conference Room 4
Lead Discussant remarks of Sylvia Beales, Gray Panthers/Stakeholder Group on Ageing.
Ageing is transforming our world. We are all ageing. Older persons are the fastest growing population group globally, reaching 22% by 2050 with 54 percent of that number being women, and almost 60 percent living in urban areas, with 46 per cent those aged 60 years and over living with disabilities. Older people experience complex forms of exclusion and marginalization based on a range of intersecting inequalities that reinforce discriminations based on age, gender and disability.
Policies and attitudes that support the contributions of older persons to civic life by enhancing their participation and recognising capacities and rights to – as opposed to need for – will lead to the dignified and secure old age we all aspire to. So these discussions are very important to us.
Leave No One Behind is not just business as usual. It means doing things differently. It means in particular taking a stand on inequalities which are growing, understanding the synergies between the goals and the consequences of not investing in and giving visibility to the left behind. It is not surprising that many actors are struggling to define or operationalize LNOB.
Attached is a transcript of Sylvia Beales' remarks.