SESRIC held the third Technical Review Meeting on 13 April 2023 at its Headquarters in Ankara, Türkiye. The Meeting presented and discussed the outcomes of the latest SESRIC research report on “State of Elderly in OIC Member Countries”.

During the Meeting, Mr. Davron Ishnazarov, Researcher at the Economic and Social Research Department, made a detailed presentation and shared the main findings of the report with the participants. In his presentation, Mr. Ishnazarov highlighted that currently there are around 95 million elderly people aged 65 and above in the OIC countries, comprising 4.8% of the OIC total population. Though, the population of the OIC countries is ageing with increasing life expectancy and declining fertility rates, however, OIC has a younger population with a relatively lower share of elderly and a higher share of children aged 0-14 years old compared to the world, non-OIC developing and developed countries as a group. It should be considered as a window of opportunities for OIC countries to align their elderly policies with their national development agendas to be prepared for times when the ageing of the population may put an additional burden on the working-age population in the future, he added.

In his presentation, Mr. Ishnazarov also provided information about the “OIC Strategy on Elderly”, which is comprised of four cooperation areas: Labour Market and Economic Integration, Health and Well-Being, Enabling a Supportive Environment, and Culture and adopted during the First Ministerial Conference on Social Development in the OIC Member Countries in 2019 to provide guidance to improve the welfare of the elders in the OIC counties. In addition to the recent developments, country experiences and best practices from OIC countries were also presented during the Meeting.

The Meeting concluded with an interactive discussion with the participants to share their comments and suggestions. In general, the participants commented about using a better visual presentation of data and graphs and improving the narrative in line with the global and OIC-level efforts. This report will be submitted to and presented at the 2^nd OIC Ministerial Conference on Social Development to be held on 05-06 June 2023 in Cairo, Egypt.

The Technical Review Meetings provide a platform for the SESRIC staff to evaluate the quality and relevance of SESRIC's research work. These meetings offer participants the opportunity to delve into the methodology, structure, scope, and outcomes of the Centre's research reports, while also encouraging them to share their comments and feedback.

Photos