During Nov. 6-9, HelpAge International Asia/Pacific Regional Conference was held in Beijing. The Conference entitled "The Voices of Older People" was co-sponsored by HelpAge International and China National Committee on Aging. Representatives from government agencies and NGOs in 17 countries in the region as well as from some UN agencies attended the conference. In light of preparing for the Second World Assembly on Aging to be held in Madrid next year, the participants discussed issues of community health, poverty, HIV/AIDS, emergencies and empowerment.

　　Speakers from China and Singapore spoke about community services for older people in their countries. Participants from the Philippines introduced their experiences of setting up older people's groups to provide services to other older people. They emphasized that comprehensive rather than sectoral community services should be developed and more attention should be given to homecare as older people often prefer growing old at home to elsewhere.

　　With regard to poverty, discussions focused on the definition of poverty, esp. the definition given in the World Bank Development Report. The report pointed out that poverty should be measured by income and property, health, education, life expectancy, and participation of the poor, while taking into account of the disparities among the urban and the rural people, men and women, different ethnic groups and different regions.

　　Participants from Thailand and India led the session on HIV/AIDS and stressed older people could also be infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, which was much neglected.

　　With regard to emergencies, all the participants agreed that on one hand older people are vulnerable because they lack information and some are slow in movement, on the other hand, they are resourceful and powerful as they have gone through many hardships and know how to help the younger pull through difficulties.

　　The conference underlines the importance of participation of older people. Older people should not be treated as passive recipients. They should be understood, listened to and empowered. During the conference, Beijing Declaration was drafted and passed. Concrete suggestions about each of the themes were listed in the Declaration. The Declaration will feed into the publication by HelpAge for the Second World Assembly on Aging.

　　The issue of older women received some attention during the Conference. Representatives from the All-China Women's Federation called for intergration of gender in the work on Aging. Their suggestion of including an additional paragraph on older women in the Declaration was accepted.