The elderly are the poorest category in Moldova. The possibility of becoming employed will help them increase their incomes and improve their living conditions. Discussions on the development of the potential of the elderly people took place within a roundtable meeting staged by HelpAge International, with the support of the United Nations Population Fund in Moldova, to present the conclusions and recommendations of the Analytical Note on the way in which ageing must be better integrated into the new National Employment Strategy for 2016-2020, IPN reports.
Attending the event, Deputy Minister of Labor, Social Protection and Family Raisa Scai said aging is a global phenomenon. In Moldova, the ageing rate exceeds 16%. In rural areas, this rate is higher. These trends affect the labor market, especially because the people who are able to work decrease in number and this will be felt in 2017 already.
HelpAge International director Tatiana Sorocan said that over 25% of the world’s population in 2050 will be 60 and over. In Moldova, the population grows older owing to the low birth rate, emigration and low life expectancy at birth. Also, the living conditions of the elderly in Moldova are difficult. By the level of welfare of the elderly, Moldova ranks 77th out of 96 assessed countries and last among the countries that formed part of the Soviet Union. 70% of the population older than 55 from Moldova does not have possibilities of aging actively.
Dina Ciubotaru, program coordinator at HelpAge International, stated that only 11% of the elderly in Moldova work. Each second citizen considers that the elderly are helpless. In such countries as the UK, it was established that the employment of elderly people led to the improvement of the economic situation. These reinvested their pensions and the population’s attitude to the elderly changed.
Among the recommendations formulated by experts for the authorities are to promote a new retirement conception by reducing the early retirement stimuli and pressure and eliminating the constraints that demotivate the elderly to continue to work, to amend the Labor Code and eliminate the age limit for persons holding executive state posts and to create partnerships with education institutions and social enterprises so as to train skilled personnel with the involvement of elderly people.
