Honourable Director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Dr. Isabel Mota,
Honourable Commissioner of the Gulbenkian Health Forum, Prof. João Lobo Antunes,
Honourable Conference Members,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I begin by congratulating the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for the initiative in holding a further edition of the Gulbenkian Health Forum.

The quality of thought and of debate developed in this Forum during the last ten years, covering health issues, in Portugal and worldwide, has provided it with undeniable prestige. A testimony of this is the worthiness of the individualities taking part, as well as the invaluable contributions that have emerged from it and that enable us to find better remedies for the problems which, in this particular field, affect our society.

I am pleased with the theme chosen for this year: the phenomenon of ageing. For each one of us it is the unfolding of the law of life but, for the societies in which we live, ageing, whilst a structural phenomenon, is a challenge, the outline and impact of which is far from being duly identified and assessed.

I doubt whether public opinion and the people of Portugal are sufficiently informed and aware of the size of this challenge, of the issues it raises, of the changes in procedure it demands, or even of the opportunities which may derive from it. In this perspective, it is never too late to resume the debate on ageing in all its extent.

Although the scenarios and figures are well known, they are nevertheless deserving of redoubled attention.

By the end of this decade, the population of Portugal should have attained its historical maximum of some 10 million 600 thousand inhabitants. At that time, those who are 65 and over should represent 16% of the total.

If we project the current trends to forty years hence, in the middle of the 21st century the Portuguese population will have suffered a reduction of 1 million 300 thousand inhabitants and the aged will then represent some 32% of the total.

On average, the Portuguese will live six years longer and the current ageing index will be multiplied by almost two and a half times, going from the current 108, to 243 aged per 100 youths. That is, should the current trends be maintained, those aged 65 and over will represent, by 2050, approximately one third of the Portuguese population.

This is a large change in the Portuguese demographic and social structure, which demands from the following generations new means of facing the ageing phenomenon and new remedies for the allocation of the available resources.

Public opinion and the media have almost exclusively focused their concerns on the costs with ageing. The impact on the pension systems, their financial sustainability, or the pressure on the national health systems deriving from the increased costs of longevity are topics which have been insistently raised.

I well understand this perspective and naturally recognize its relevance. However, I would like to recommend that it be the object of a wider consideration.

Ageing must not be seen as a menace or as a burden for the welfare of the new generations.

The fact that we are speaking about elder people should not prevent us from considering them as a part of the remedies that open new doors to the future. The fact that we are speaking about statistically inactive people does not give us leave to ignore or dispense their contribution towards the creation of wealth and welfare.

It is precisely because these are people, that we must not consider them as just a number, a cost, or an expense.

The ageing phenomenon obliges us, before anything else, to rethink our system of values and the models of social organization. The way in which we face youth, active age, or old age derives from a too rigid concept of our life cycle. The period of training, the period of work and, lastly, the period of inactive leisure succeed each other at such an invariable rate, that any adjustment or capability to manage that life cycle becomes extremely difficult.

However, we do recognize today that education and training cannot be confined to the formal and initial periods of learning. In these times we refer to lifelong education and training. Why not, therefore, recognize the principle of active ageing?

Why can’t we build more flexible remedies for the transition of active life to old age, remedies which may allow a composition of work, leisure and training adjusted to the potential of each individual?

If we consider the experience and skills accumulated by an individual throughout the term of his active life, we could easily arrive at the conclusion that every year we waste assets that could be very useful for enterprises, for younger workers, for civil society organizations – as is the case with the institutions of social solidarity – or even for civic and cultural organizations.

In the case of enterprises, I ask myself if the obsession with the continuous rejuvenation of their workers results in an effective gain in efficiency, and if that could not contribute towards a deficit of identity, of organizational culture or even of profitability.

In the case of civic organizations, I have been placing emphasis on the role of voluntary workers and, since using to advantage the experience of many now retired members of the staff of enterprises, could be a contribution for such organizations, with the same material resources, to provide better services and make these more accessible to a greater number of needy people.

I must confess that I feel proud when seeing thousands of voluntary workers in institutions of social solidarity, even if I must recognize that we have still a very large margin for progress, comparing the low levels of civic participation and voluntary work existing in Portugal with that of our European partners.

Traditionally, we assimilate old age with the exhaustion of potential of the work force, and understand that a corresponding repose from the efforts spent during active life is well deserved. This is an understandable view in the perspective of the physical effort which is predominant in the industrial and agricultural societies; it is however almost paradoxical in societies where greater value is given to knowledge and experience.

The idea has been set that each retired citizen will give way to a young worker. That would perhaps be true within societies with low professional mobility and limited dynamism. It is not necessarily true in today’s societies, neither should it be true in the future.

At a time when the demand is for greater occupational flexibility, for greater adaptability to face technological systems with accelerated obsolescence, but also when greater capability to understand the relevance of social innovation is required, that idea is more than ever queried. The creation of new jobs tends to become less dependant from the freeing or destruction of those in existence.

In this perspective, it is convenient that we anticipate and understand the fact that professional trajectories and careers become less than ever linear and more differentiated throughout active life.

It is thus urgent that we think of ageing as an extension of activity, facing the transition from the labour market to retirement as a more diffused and diversified procedure in the possible combinations of part time activity, leisure and training.

Since the 4th age is now already spoken of, it is urgent we rethink the 3rd age and how we should traverse and prepare each of them.

We are speaking about the creation of new life styles and we must not continue trying to face the issues of the 21st century with 20th century remedies.

I am certain that, if steps are taken in that sense, we could improve the quality of life and the welfare of many of our today’s and tomorrow’s aged.

In connection with this, it should not be forgotten that part of the pressure exerted by the ageing of the population on the health systems, results much more from inactivity and lack of social integration than from sickness. The abrupt change in life style, the lack of recognition of their usefulness, the isolation or the lack of affection, lead thousands of aged people to conceive their relation with health care professionals as a refuge where a little more attention and care may be found.

What we truly need is greater social innovation and a greater capability to answer the stimuli and the challenges placed on us by the future. It would be promising if this innovation should result from people’s initiative, from the dynamism of enterprises and of organizations, from the capacity for strategic consensus between the various economic, social and cultural executants, with the State ensuring a favourable framework for its development.

The idea of active ageing can be one of the privileged fields of social innovation, without our becoming eternally dependant, for this reason, from the initiative of public institutions and political decisions. Remedies such as the planned recourse to part time work, time banks, duly remunerated extension of active life, will have to be given validity.

Surprising as it may seem, our labour legislation already permits some of those remedies, but in spite of this the executants and the organizations do not recur to such methods. In this, as in many other fields, it is not for lack of legislation that the Country does no go forward.

Maybe to a greater extent it is due to lack of initiative, to scarcity of entrepreneurial spirit, to the difficulty we have in becoming free from State dependence and to the claustrophobic bureaucratic and centralized regulation.

Rethinking ageing in all its dimensions will certainly help to prepare ourselves to face its consequences and to find the best remedies for the issues it raises. A fundamental requisite must however be placed: it is not enough to find technical and economically effective remedies which, at the same time, are not humanely dignifying.

I am certain that the reflection and the debate which will take place in this Gulbenkian Health Forum will be an important contribution for the challenge of ageing to become, in Portugal, viewed in a wider and more constructive perspective.


Thank you.