Organizing body: Supreme Council for Family Affair

Dates Held: 30^th – 31^st March and 1^st April

First: Meeting Objectives and Themes

Due to the increasing number of the elderly in comparison with the total population in the Arab countries according to the statistics conducted for this purpose, the Meeting is considered an opportunity to put forth the issues that concern the elderly on all levels with the aim to improving their positions and giving them extra opportunities.

The Meeting, likewise, will discuss how to find a work mechanism to enable the elderly proper employment opportunities to confirm their productive capabilities and their contributing to social advancement and development and finally to be protected against the negative effects resulting from unemployment and disengagement. The themes of the Meeting included:

1.     Preservation of the position of the elderly in the family as it is the basis of establishing a strong and solid society. All generations, including the elderly, have to participate and contribute to the advancement and development of the society.

2.     The elderly individual is concerned with himself/herself and with his/her capability to provide for himself/herself and his/her participation in the comprehensive development plan and that he/she is a part of the present and the future.

3.      Evaluating the recommendations of the first and second meeting on the governmental and non-governmental levels and reviewing the recommendations which haven't been implemented.

4.     Reviewing and discussing the studied conducted by the scholars responsible for preparing the third meeting.

5.     Getting acquainted with some Qatari experiences concerning the legislations and services offered to the elderly.

Second: Work Papers

1.     Presenting the Guide for the National Strategy for Elderly in the State of Qatar by Dr. Noora Khalifa Al-Subaiee, National Strategy Seminar Export, States of Qatar.

2.     The Madrid Document and how far it has been implemented, second International Society for the Elderly, Dr. Tariq AL-Shoman, International Export for Elderly's Affairs at the UN.

3.     The Elderly between reality and research Dr. Feisal Al-Nasser, Arab Gulf University, Kingdom of Bahrain.

4.     Presentation of database programs on the Elderly in the Arab Countires, Professor said Abbas Al-Sammak, Al-Hikma Society for Pensioners, Kingdom of Bahrain.

5.     Present conditions of the Elderly, the Lebanon specimen, Dr. Abdullah Al-Hakim, Social Care Institution, Lebanon.

6.     Encentive for Keeping the Elderly within the Family, Dr. Adil AL-Kesady, Charity House Society, State of the United Arab Emirates.

7.     A Study of the Elderly's conditions in the Palestine and Iraq as a specimen for impact of embargo and sanctions on the Elderly, Khalid Ahmed Al-Sudani, Islamic Relief Agency, Jordan.

8.     A survey study on the Role of Governmental Institutions in Caring for the Elderly in the State of Qatar, Professor Lulwa Al-Zaidi, Department of Elderly's Affairs, Supreme Council for Family Affairs, Qatar.

9.     The Kuwaiti Experience in the Skill of Communications with the Elderly, Psychologically, Socially and Institutionally, Dr. Hmood AL-Qashaan, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kuwait.

Third: Recommendations

1.     Working toward investing the energy of the elderly to serve the community, laying out the plans and programs which focus on them as producers not simply consumers, conducting researches and studies to address the problems they confront and proposing the appropriate solutions to them from social and psychological viewpoints and involving the elderly in the development.

2.     Raising the retirement age and curbing early retirement, providing the elderly economic activities according to their needs and capabilities, enhancing them to continue in social life by removing the barrier that isolates them from the rest of the community by means of communication among the generations and promotion of interaction among them.

3.     Raising awareness of differentiation between the sickly or disabled elderly person and the elderly person who is able to particle his/her normal life by offering medical services to him/her.

4.     Working toward issuing legislations which protect the elderly and preserve their dignity and help providing protection to the elderly, inform them about their rights, urging them to benefit from the prerogatives granted to them, including the social activities concerned with the elderly within the state's policies and urging NGOs to play their role in participating in laying out and carrying out the social policies which target the elderly.

5.     Allocating sufficient budgets and qualifying the cadres that deal with the elderly especially caring for them in homes especially prepared for them, revising the ways and methods used in nursing homes about how to deal with the elderly by confirming the elderly's independence, and allocating financial support to the elderly in accordance with their real needs and inflation.

6.     Formulating special societies for the elderly and establishing them clubs and social centers, encouraging NGOs to increase their care about the Elderly's participation in development and them coordinating in this matter with the governmental bodies.

7.      Endeavoring to establish a database for the elderly and obtain the comprehensive descriptive data so hat the government and research centers benefit from the standards and information collected, providing human cadres, financial resources for the statistical systems, developing indicators to interpret the variables which affect the conditions of the elderly including the obtaining of data and information on the small and local geographical levels as they are one of the important factors in decision making concerning distributing materials and items and send them to remote areas where there are the groups that don't enjoy services properly or where the level of services is not up to the standard.

8.     Preparing a study on the needs of the elderly who are retired and experienced and issue a list of their qualifications and organize media campaigns to make use of their capabilities and skills and specify certain jobs to be taken by them exclusively.

9.     Calling Arab governments to pay attention to programs on the elderly and these governments to orient their demographic and social policies toward caring for this segment and including issues and conditions of the elderly in school curricula to establish their importance in the forthcoming generations' minds.

10. Activating the media role and make use of it to fill in the gap between grandparents and grandchildren, besides working at curbing children's disobedience of their parents and grandparents.