Authorities from the Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) officially presented the self-paced course "Population Ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean: Challenges and Opportunities." 

The activity, which already has more than 1,300 enrollees from 15 countries, aims to provide parliaments and social security organizations with technical capacities to manage the impact of demographic change. The event was attended by prominent regional leaders, who agreed that population ageing is not a temporary event, but a structural transformation that requires a new architecture of public policies. 

During the opening, Javier Medina Vásquez, Deputy Executive Secretary of ECLAC, emphasized the urgency of adopting a long-term perspective. "Ageing is not just a pressure on fiscal sustainability; it is a direct challenge to the cohesion of our societies. We cannot afford reactive responses; we need anticipatory governance and legislative foresight to design regulations that pave the way for the coming decades," Medina noted. 

For his part, Emanuel Dantas, Director of the Inter-American Center for Social Security Studies (CIESS), highlighted the speed of the phenomenon in the region. "Europe required nearly half a century, between 1950 and 2000, for its population aged 60 and over to increase from 11% to 20%. Latin America is traveling this same route at a much faster pace. This reality forces us to train human talent capable of translating policy decisions into better living conditions," he stated. 

The session included a robust technical presentation by Simone Cecchini, Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre (CELADE-Population Division of ECLAC), who warned that by 2050, the population aged 65 and over will have doubled, reaching 138 million people. Cecchini highlighted that the end of the demographic bonus in 2028 and the increase in functional dependency place long-term care as the new frontier of social policy in the Americas. 

From a parliamentary perspective, the President of the House of Representatives of Uruguay, Rodrigo Goñi, called for a reformulation of traditional life cycles in light of the arrival of the "long-lived society." "Without anticipatory governance, any policy we design today will simply be a patch for tomorrow," he asserted. Similarly, former Chilean senator David Sandoval shared the progress of the Comprehensive Ageing Law in Chile as a model of legislative consensus to protect the human rights of older persons. 

Finally, the Comptroller of CISS, Nicolás Starck, closed the event by reaffirming the institution's commitment to overcoming administrative "silos" and promoting comprehensive social security that fosters autonomy and healthy work.

About the course: The program is free, 100% virtual, and self-paced. It is structured into four modules: 

• Demographic trends and population ageing  
• International framework for public policies on ageing 
• Public policies on ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean 
• Public policy cases to seize economic opportunities from ageing 

Each module includes audiovisual resources, selected readings, and partial assessments. The course is especially aimed at officials, advisors, and technical teams in parliaments. Upon successful completion, participants receive an official certification issued by ECLAC and CISS. 

The course is available with no deadline at the following link: https://agora.cepal.org/course/view.php?id=4