“Moving forward for an Ageing Society: Bridging the Distances”. Italian preliminary position paper to the OECD

The present national exercise on the Ageing society builds on the chapter of the OECD Science, Technology and Industry Outlook 2012 entitled “Science and technology perspectives on an ageing society”. The aim of this document was to “bring the science and technology (S&T) dimension of ageing, health and disability into sharper focus and stimulate interest in further thinking”. The mentioned chapter was based, among other things, on the outcomes of the OECD/APEC workshop held in Tokyo in 2012 focusing on smart technologies and their role in meeting the challenges of ageing societies. The demographic analysis presented by the OECD in the above-mentioned document proposes a very challenging scenario, especially for Italy where the share of the population aged 65 or more is expected to reach 30% by 2050, while the share of the group over 80 years of age is expected to reach around 15% of total population. This “grey” revolution will affect virtually every aspect of our societies, our economies and our lives and requires a profound and comprehensive policy change in all strategic sectors, with a completely new perspective and innovative approach towards possible solutions and/or mitigation strategies. The Italian Ministry for Education, Universities and Research - in line with its constitutional mandate to set out short, medium and long term research policy guidelines, and in its capacity as Italian Government representative in the OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP) - called upon the Italian institutional and scientific community to join forces, in order to meet the cross-cutting challenge of an Ageing society. A large number of Italian Government Institutions and research groups are actively engaged on ageing issues, although with a sector-based approach. However, it is clearly emerging from the various analyses on a national and international scale, that approaching the problem from a single perspective, even the most comprehensive one such as the “health-related” issue, might prove ineffective to meet the complexity of the challenge ahead. During the 102nd CSTP meeting held at the OECD headquarters in Paris, in March 2013, the lively debate on ageing, among national delegations, confirmed the widely shared need for a completely new and integrated approach, whereby the demographic and social issues take on board the most advanced technologies and instruments. The debate was particularly relevant for countries such as Germany, Japan, South Korea and Italy, where ageing population is clearly projected to grow steadily. The OECD, given its capacity to address both scientific and economic issues and its independent and intergovernmental nature, is currently the most appropriate international environment to advance this issue and promote the adoption of an increasingly systemic and cross-cutting approach to the breadth of issues involved in ageing. This should allow us to move beyond a sector-based approach which has slowed down the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a process set in motion by the UN general assembly in 2000. Italy is moving in this direction and the present document represents a first relevant step towards a possible role for Italy to become one of the global hubs for investigating the multiple aspects of ageing societies and outlining possible solutions.