Sri Lanka: Policy Dialogue to Address the Needs of a Rapidly Aging Population

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“In order to avert an aging crisis in Sri Lanka, preparations to address aging will have to begin sooner rather than later: inaction is not a viable alternative” said Ms. Naoko Ishii, World Bank Country Director, opening the policy dialogue at a workshop in Colombo on September 9, 2008.

The workshop was organized by the World Bank to launch a report titled “Sri Lanka Addressing the Needs of an Aging Population” with the participation of Government, Civil Society Organizations, Development Partners and the Private Sector.

Outlining the findings of the report, Ms. Ishii highlighted that women are the most vulnerable group in the process of an aging population in Sri Lanka. The dependency on the traditional family support system to take care of the elderly, in most cases becomes the responsibility of women. In such instances, it becomes an opportunity cost for the female caretaker as she will be deprived of an opening to work and improve her skills. This will deprive her of future employment prospects. Improving the formal old age income support system and health care system were also outlined in the  opening address by the Country Director.

Ms. Naoko Ishii opening the policy dialogue by presenting the report to Hon. Athauda Seneviratne, Minister of Labour Relations and Foreign Employment.

The Guest of Honour, Hon. Athauda Seneviratne, Minister of Labour Relations and Foreign Employment welcomed the policy dialogue and highlighted challenges facing developed and developing countries with similar demographic trends.

The Hon. Minister emphasized on the maximum utilization of the knowledge and skills of the elderly as key for the benefit of the society and the importance of policy changes to improve the employability of elderly.

“Challenges arising from increasing number of aged, can only be dealt with by multi-pronged approach – centred on family, the society and the government” said the Hon. Minister recommending adult education and lifelong learning opportunities to enable the elderly to remain employable.

“It is not enough to produce a report – we must go further and try to implement the recommendations contained in it striving for a society that is not only more productive but also more humane” - Milan Vodopivec, Lead Social Protection Economist

Thanking the co-authors of the report, who are mostly Sri Lankans, the author of the report, Milan Vodopivec said that the purpose of the workshop is not limited to increasing awareness but also to engage key stakeholders in a productive policy dialogue taking ownership of the issue to be addressed.

Milan also clarified the dilemma that came up in an African context based on a perception that investing in the elderly will deprive resources from the young. He confirmed that this would not be the case in Sri Lanka, as the country still has the opportunity to invest in the aging population. Increasing the productivity of the young would enable the country to be better geared towards addressing the needs of the aged.

Effectively utilizing the already available 10,000 nurses to address the needs of the elderly as well as maternal and infant health and increasing the retirement age to utilize the already available human resources for productive gains were key recommendations by the author.

The Workshop focused on presenting the Four chapters of the report findings and a panel discussion .

"People tend to ignore retirement till they hit their 40s but retirement schemes would be cheaper if started earlier" - Mr. John Thambar, Member of the National Council for Elders

Chapter I

“The aging population in Sri Lanka is growing at 3.3% per annum while the population is     growing at 1.1%” said Prof. K. Siddhisena from the Department of Demographics of the University of Colombo, presenting the chapter on Demographic Trends and Informal Support. Rapidly declining fertility and higher life expectancy were highlighted to be two factors affecting the demographic changes affecting Sri Lanka.

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Chapter II

“China and Sri Lanka are the 2 most dramatic cases of a large proportion of the population not being covered by pension schemes” said Robert Palacios, World Bank Senior Economist, presenting the chapter on Income Support Programs for Old Age. The report also finds that there is lack of coordination and duplication in pension systems in Sri Lanka and the author of the report recommended an integrated and well targetted system to improve income support programs for the Old Age.

"The quality of life of the aged is very sad" said Ms. Myrtal Perera citing qualitative examples from research experience at Marga Institute. Pensions received by the elderly are forcibly taken away by their children and there is a lot of loneliness and despair among the elderly.

Chapter III

“Sri Lanka is approaching the European profile for mortality from Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs), with the risk from NCDs higher than UK and the EU” highlighted Dr. Ravi Rannan-Eliya, Director, Institute for Health Policy presenting the findings from the chapter authored by him on Health Status, Public Health, and Health Care of Old People. This chapter also finds that about 45% of workers withdraw from the labour force due to ill health and failure to treat NCDs will lead to a further burden of care on the 80+ population.

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Chapter IV

Presenting the chapter onLabor Market and Population Aging Dr. Nisha Arunatilake, Research Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies recommended to improve the labour force participation rate of old people. “This requires reducing labour market rigidity about retirement. But this will have to be done carefully as it can impact the public sector” said Dr. Arunatilake who is also one of the co-authors of this chapter.

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