e-Resource on Ageing

compiled and annotated by Isis Manila staff

Global Action on Aging
http://www.globalaging.org/mission.htm

Global Action on Aging is an international grassroots citizen group that works on issues of concern to older people. It reports on the needs of the older people as well as their potential within a globalised world economy. It carries out research on critical emerging topics and publishes the results. It distributes news both directly, through its own publications, and through the mass media. It maintains a presence at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and participates in major UN events and conferences.

The Global Aging Network links together world-wide activities in the field of the older people by means of fax and E-mail. It provides regular news and a series of special issue-alerts for action. Its Elder-Rights Project advocates protection of older persons as an integral part of the human rights movement. Global Action on Aging works with human rights organisations and researchers to focus attention on these urgent elder-rights concerns.

The Pension Watch initiative addresses recent world-wide pension reductions and wider social security “reforms” which reduce social services and income support for older persons. Pension Watch monitors these changes. It engages in the debate about government budgets, “dependency,” “entitlements,” “generational equity,” and other issues. It also works directly with affected groups of pensioners and needy older persons in many countries.

Founded in early 1994, Global Action on Aging publishes a newsletter, has developed a network and has co-sponsored booths at the UN international conferences in Beijing, Cairo and Copenhagen. It has published a research report on pensions in the global South and has sponsored a book about aging, Humanity Comes of Age.

Asia Development Research Forum
http://www.panasia.org.sg/adrf/workgrps/ageing/index.htm

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) based in Canada initiated the creation of the Asia Development Research Forum (ADRF) in 1994. The Thailand Research Fund hosted the first meeting in Bangkok in September 1997 with an initial group of 35 prominent researchers, research managers, decision makers and representatives of funding agencies who agreed to enhance the strength and impact of development research in Asia.

The ADRF chose to concentrate attention initially on Implications of Ageing Populations, and on Policy Innovation. But in the light of recent developments in Asia, the ADRF in 1988 chose to also conduct research work on aspects of the current Asian financial crisis. The Ageing Populations Working Group now is one of ADRF’s activities that include networking, selective research funding and resource mobilisation.

The Website gives a summary of the discussion papers and research projects on ageing in Asia. The most recent topics include problems on social security schemes and the issues and constraints in developing services for older people in the region.

HelpAge International
http://www.helpageasia.com

HelpAge International (HAI) is a global network of non-profit organisations in over 70 countries with a mission to work with and for disadvantaged older people world-wide to achieve a lasting improvement in the quality of their lives. Its secretariat is based in London, UK.

HelpAge International started its work in Asia and the Pacific in the 1970s. HAI now has 17 member organisations across the region making an active contribution to its network. It also works with other partners including NGOs, academic institutions, governments and individuals.

HelpAge International’s Asia/Pacific Regional Development Centre is based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It is the first point of contact for member and partner organisations of HAI, and it works with these groups to provide effective services for the poorest older people in the region. The Regional Development Centre (RDC) facilitates exchanges of expertise and experience between member and partner organisations through specialised training programmes and annual workshops and conferences.

HelpAge International’s Programme Unit at the Asia/Pacific Regional Development Centre (RDC) provides technical and funding support to HAI members and partners throughout the region to implement projects and programmes, to conduct research, to develop organisational capacity, to strengthen the HAI network, and to advocate on issues related to older people.

Rapid Demographic Change and the Welfare of the Elderly
http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/asia/index.shtml

The Rapid Demographic Change and the Welfare of the Elderly project is a multiyear collaborative project of the UM Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, sponsored by the U.S. National Institute on Ageing and several Asian population institutions. Participating countries are the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Singapore. The goal of the project is to develop systematic data and analyses that will capture the transformations in population growth. Members of the project use a broad range of data, including censuses, other official statistics, national surveys of older people, focus groups, and case and village studies.

Participating in the project are the National University of Singapore’s Asian Population Institute, the Institute of Population Studies of Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, the Taiwan Provincial Institute of Family Planning, and the Population Institute of the University of the Philippines.

The project focuses on the following research topics: kin mapping and availability, exchanges and support, living arrangements, resource allocation and division of labour within the household, income and assets, labour force and retirement patterns, socioeconomic differentials in health and mortality, health behaviour, use of and satisfaction with existing government services.

UN Programme on Ageing
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/ageing/index.html

The UN Programme on Ageing is a Website of the United Nations that specialises on the issue of ageing and older people. It gives an up-to-date run of UN activities in preparation for the Second World Assembly on Ageing in year 2002 and has a database on UN policies and programmes on the issue of older people.