UNFPA, Chisinau, March 22, 2010 – „There is an imperfect system of social protection of aged people, but the specialized authorities decided and are ready to adopt concrete actions that would improve the situation”, this is one of the conclusions formulated at the end of the fact finding mission concerning ageing issues paid by the delegation of experts of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) on the 15 to 19th of March. 

The UNECE experts noticed that there are inconsistencies and overlapping in the system of social protection from the Republic of Moldova. „The system of pensions for example, has not clear and transparent rules of functioning, and the correlation of the social to health services is weak”, mentioned Andres Vikat, Head of the Department for Policies of Population of UNECE. On the other hand, he told that the Government of the Republic of Moldova admitted the need of some urgent reforms in this respect, it is an advantage. Viviane Brunne, UNECE Program Coordinator, appreciated the situation in the field of services of  geriatrics (branch of medicine that deals with ageing issues),  told that in Armenia for example at the stage of developing a similar research, there was not a geriatric organization, while in Moldova such organizations activate at national and district level.

In another context, Andres Vikat mentioned that the population ageing is a usual phenomenon, characteristic to many states from Europe and from the whole world. The ageing can t be stopped, that is why national programs of adaptation and minimizing the consequences created by new demographic conditions are necessary. That is, „ we should consider the positive side of population ageing, as for example the increased life expectancy, advanced competency and experience, the possibility of capitalizing the life capital of aged people”.

Eppu Mikkonen-Jeanneret, Regional Representative Help Age International for Eastern Europe and Central Asia confirmed that in such a way, the first action we should start from is the creation of a new and positive image of aged people. „ We should transform them from poor and weak persons into strong and assured persons. The role of mass media is very important in this process, because the press prefers namely such images of aged people and creates stereotypes linked to their weakness”.

It is worth mentioning that in the Republic of Moldova the coefficient of population ageing is 14% and in some districts it exceeds 19% and they assess that each third persons will be retired in 2050.

The research in the field of the UNECE delegation in Moldova is the first from a larger set of actions, initiated by UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund, in partnership with the Government of the Republic of Moldova aimed to identify solutions to overcome the consequences provoked by the fast population ageing. There is as well the development of a research on assessing the impact of ageing; development of the Action Plan and assessment of the progress in the field; development of the National Strategy on demographic security.