In the last 40 years, life expectancy in China has risen by 31 years, in the Philippines by 21 years and in Bangladesh by 20 years. Just over half of the world’s older people currently live in Asia but, by 2050, Asia will be home to almost two-thirds of the world's older population.

Such demographic changes have enormous implications for governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), families, and for older people themselves.

New responsibilities and pressures

In Asian societies, it is traditionally assumed that younger family members will care for older people. But extensive urbanisation, combined with a considerable number of younger relatives moving away to look for work, poses problems for the care of older people.

Increased education and employment opportunities for women – the primary carers – have strained the traditional system of family support. As a result, large groups of older people remain poor and cannot provide for their own basic needs, such as food and shelter.

The high incidence of HIV/AIDS in the region has put an extra burden on older people – they often have to care for family members living with HIV and children whose parents have died of AIDS.

Few governments in the region have policies that deal with the needs of older people. While several countries have pension systems that benefit ex-civil servants or military personnel, most people outside the formal employment sector have little or no income security in old age.

In many cases, the needs of older people are a low priority, particularly in countries that have very limited resources for social services.

Older people in the region are also at risk from the increasing number of natural disasters, for example, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the recent Asian earthquake. However, older people are not often identified as a vulnerable group and therefore do not receive relief or rehabilitation assistance.

The way forward

The challenge for the Asia/Pacific regional development centre is to provide governments and NGOs with the information, training and support that they need to implement appropriate policies for older people.

Our projects in the region aim to:

• ensure that older people in developing countries have access to basic services (including water and shelter), a non-contributory basic pension and free health care
• support older people affected by HIV/AIDS and raise awareness of older people's role as carers of people living with HIV/AIDS, orphans and vulnerable children. This will help to ensure that policy makers in government, donor organisations, civil society and age-care organisations include these older people in their HIV/AIDS policies and programmes
• improve older people's livelihoods through income-generating activities
• provide appropriate relief to those older people most severely affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Asian earthquake disaster, and advocate for people aged 60 and over to be included in all related assessments and consultations
• work with local partners, the government and civil society to ensure the effective implementation of policies to support older people
• provide an evidence base – through participatory research, studies and needs assessments – to help inform our advocacy work.