Costa Rica Has Aged Like A Rich Country: New IDB Strategy Includes 4 Plans To Address Future Challenges

(MENAFN- Costa Rica News) It has been mentioned before: Costa Rica has an aging profile like that of the most developed countries. The problem is that there are not the same resources to address the demographic challenge of a nation with many more older adults.

There are three key concerns for those who pay the bill. First are the older adults, who would have problems with pensions; second, women, who society continues to burden with care tasks.

And the third is the country itself, which must reorganize its finances to care for the population. These variables are already beginning to demand adjustments and are included in the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Country Strategy for Costa Rica.

“Costa Rica has one of the longest life expectancies in the region, that is positive, we do not want to change it. But it has a challenge. We are talking about a life expectancy that can go to 80, 90 years, and that has implications,” explained the local representative of the IDB, Francisco Javier Urra.

More concerns of the IDB

Facing this challenge, there are measures that should be advanced for when the time comes (not too far away) of a society with a much higher average age.“It is one of the most challenging issues because it requires structural reforms of great depth and requires thinking about future generations. Costa Rica has a very different demographic pyramid, it has a very strong implication in several issues,” explained the IDB delegate.

He also added the challenge that there are already consequences in the most everyday things.“For example, in the issue of care. Costa Rica is making a lot of progress in gender parity, but we see that, for example, women leave their jobs to take care of the elderly and in that sense then gender parity is broken,” he maintains.

Specifically, what can be done?

The trends observed by the IDB indicate that by 2030 the population over 65 years of age will exceed that under 15 years of age. By 2050, the number of people who will need care will rise from 2.9 per 100 to 11.3.

Added to this is the fact that to date, 1 in 5 people who need help with their daily activities do not receive it. Finally, there is the gender gap, since women represent 90% of caregivers. Such scenarios led to giving special consideration to the issue within the IDB Country Strategy, presented in recent days.

Regarding actions to be implemented in the short term, Urra suggests:

National Care System: there must be a policy that combines public work with measures in the private sector. This could include timetable systems for people who act as caregivers.

Pensions: study and debate must take place to consolidate sustainability for the coming years.

Fiscal Impact: Public finance management must be reviewed to meet the demands of the demographic challenge.

Silver Economy: This concept covers the contributions that older adults whose health conditions and desire allow them to remain active in the productive system can continue to make.

IDB proposes to focus on 3 areas

For the 2024-2027 period covered by the strategy, the IDB delimited in three lines the areas to address a projected investment of $2,000 million. These include:

IDB 2024-27 strategy for Costa Rica

As a starting point for this strategy, the IDB recently launched the program“Improving the Quality of the Educational System in Costa Rica.” This combines a loan of $150 million and $7.5 million in cooperation.

The next initiatives will be in the area of ​​citizen security and social protection. These are joined by initiatives already under development in areas such as transport infrastructure, energy and border integration.-

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