CAIRO, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Arab League (AL) has initiated a strategy to improve the social and health conditions of the people aged 60 or above in the Arab region, the Cairo-based pan-Arab organization said in a statement Tuesday.
The statement was issued on the occasion of the International Day of Older Persons, which falls on Oct. 1 every year.
"In appreciation of this important category of the society, the councils of Arab social affairs and health ministers prepared a strategy that focuses on their social and health conditions to secure a better life for them," said Haifa Abu-Ghazaleh, AL Assistant Secretary General for Social Affairs.
She noted that the number of older persons in the Arab region, who are aged 60 or above, has reached about 26.53 million in 2015, constituting to 6.67 percent of the total Arab population.
Citing a report jointly issued in November 2017 by the Council of Arab Social Affairs Ministers and the United Nations Population Fund, Abu-Ghazaleh said that the number of Arab aged people is expected to rise to about 100.27 million by 2050 to comprise 15.2 percent of the Arab world's population.
Besides social and healthcare plans, the strategy includes national plans for educating aged people and it is expected to be submitted to the upcoming Arab summit that will be held in Tunisia in March 2019, said Abu-Ghazaleh.
The UN said that the number of elder people in the world is expected to rise from 962 million in 2017 to 1.4 billion by 2030 and 2.1 billion by 2050.
