Yesterday, on the third day of the World Social Security Forum (WSSF) currently underway in Cape Town, has urged countries around the world to adapt their social security programmes to the changing global demographics. The WSSF and the 30th International Social Security Association (ISSA) General Assembly is hosted by the Department of Social Development.
The plenary session analysed and deliberated on how social security can dynamically adapt to new realities imposed by demographic changes by fostering preventative approach, making social security more work-friendly, and protecting people in a life-long society.
Speaking at the plenary session, Professor Julien Damon from France told the high-level delegates that demographic change was underway in all regions of the world, and that gender outcomes in terms of access to social security were often unequal with more women at risk of poverty in old age than men.
The results of work carried out by the ISSA Technical Commissions throughout the world clearly show that demographic changes present social security systems with important questions about how to finance existing programmes, and pension systems in particular. Other issues include the emergence of new social risks for individuals and families and how responses to these too might be designed and financed.
A global message from the WSSF was that longer lives and healthier living has become possible in all regions, and improvements in access to social security and health-care systems have had a major role in these achievements. Despite this progress, a majority of the world still had no access to adequate social protection.
To mark World AIDS Day, the WSSF also set time aside to reflect on the negative impact of the AIDS pandemic, especially in a number of low- and middle-income countries.
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