Jane Scobie www.globalagewatch.org
Cross-national research on well-being of older people: Insights from Global AgeWatch Index
•Setting the scene: Population Ageing
•Why the Index?
•What is the Index?
•Cross-national research challenges:
• Multidimensional well-being framework
• Data
• Subjective indicators
•What’s next?
Scale and rate of global population ageing
Increases in all regions
Source: UNDESA Population Division, Population Ageing and Development 2012, Wall Chart, 2012; UNDESA Population Division, World Population Prospects: the 2012 Revision, 2013
Why is the Index needed?
• Monitor well-being of older people across the world
• Benchmark countries and provide insight into areas of policy intervention
• Provide a guideline framework for governments and international institutions on key data to collect to develop and respond to population ageing
• Help identify, track and monitor key trends on ageing at country, regional and global levels
• Ensure the Post 2015 framework includes older people and responds to the UN Secretary General’s call for a ‘data revolution’.
What is the Index? • First-ever measure of quality of life and well-being of older
people around the world
• Uses the latest cross-national data available from World Bank, WHO, ILO, and Gallup World View
• Covers 96 countries representing 91% of the world’s older people
Four domains and thirteen indicators
Cross-national research challenges : multidimensional framework of well-being• How to capture well-being
• Cultures might define quality of life differently
• People might assign priorities to dimensions
• The Index framework was developed based on
• Human Development Index
• Recommendations of the Stiglitz Commission, Madrid International Plan of Actions on Ageing, UNFPA/HelpAge International report ‘Ageing in the XXI century’
• Consultations with more than 30 International experts in ageing from academia, international governmental organizations and civil societies.
Cross-national research challenges: Data
• We lack internationally comparable data on older people (e.g. poverty in old age, political participation, life-long learning, psychological well-being)
Cross-national research challenges: Data• When data is available it might not reflect the current
situation
• Time lag when national statistics makes it to international datasets
• No international agreement on methodology of measuring indicators (e.g. HALE; poverty rate: absolute vs. relative; equivalence scale; income vs. consumption based)
Cross-national research challenges: Subjective indicators• Subjective indicators
• Important to include perspective of older people on enabling environment they live in
• Cross-national comparison of subjective indicators
• Need for better quality subjective data
greater sample and age group 60+
• should be part of national datasets (e.g. Eurofound Quality of life Survey 2012, EU Quality of life indicators)
Partnering for next steps
• Extend the Index to cover all countries
• Constructing separate indices for older women and men
• Include political and civil rights
• Have data broken down by groups within each country - rural areas, towns and cities, richer and poorer areas of a country, different age groups of older people
• Explore how new data from national sources can develop the Index further
• Set the standard for ageing well everywhere
Thank you!