New UN/Help Age report:
On 1 October, the International Day of Older persons, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Help Age International published a joint report entitled ‘Ageing in the Twenty-first Century: A Celebration and a Challenge’. This underlines that, while the fact that people live longer is a cause for celebration, it also presents challenges: it requires new approaches to health care, retirement, living arrangements and intergenerational relations. If not addressed promptly, the consequences of these issues are likely to take unprepared countries by surprise. In many developing countries with large populations of young people, for example, the challenge is that governments have not put policies and practices in place to support their current older populations or made enough preparations for 2050.
The report also includes the stories of some 1,300 older men and women who participated in group discussions in 36 countries around the world.
The five main targets of Europe 2020: progress to date
The progress made in reaching the five objectives of the ‘Europe 2020’ strategy is proving unequal. In some areas (e.g. R&D), progress has been made. However, the areas relating to boosting employment and fighting poverty are not doing too well. The ‘Europe 2020’ strategy, adopted in June 2010, aims at establishing a ‘smart, sustainable and inclusive economy’ with high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion.
Employment: the first key objective of the ‘Europe 2020’ strategy is to increase employment. The target to be reached by 2020 is an employment rate of 75% among those aged 20 to 64 in the EU27. This rate rose from 66.6% in 2000 to 70.3% in 2008 and then, following the economic crisis, fell to 68.6% in 2011.
R&D: The second key objective is to increase investment in R&D. The target to be reached in the EU27 by 2020 is a3% share of GDP invested in R&D. This share has grown from 1.86% in 2000 to2% in 2010.
Poverty: The fifth key objective is the reduction of poverty, including monetary poverty, material deprivation and lack of access to the labour market. The target for2020 is to reduce the number of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion in theEU27, meaning those affected by at least one of the three dimensions of poverty, by 20 million persons. This number has decreased from 123.9 million in 2005 to113.8 million in 2009, but then rose to 115.7 million In 2010.
