New York, 5 July 2017. At the General Debate of the 8th Working Session of the Open-Ended Working Group on Aging, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations, Ambassador Ana Silvia Rodríguez Abascal, explained that Cuba has turned elderly care into a priority, carrying out a multidisciplinary and intersectoral work to guarantee the quality of life of this sector of the population.
The Cuban representative made sure that thanks to the political will of the government and the efforts of the whole people, the guarantees offered by universal and free access to health care services, the high levels of education achieved by Cubans, as well as urban sanitation and sanitary programs, have risen life expectancy to rates exclusive to most developed states.
She considered that programs and strategies for international cooperation and the transfer of resources, technologies and knowledge to developing countries should be strengthened in order to complement and reinforce their national capacities in social development, particularly as regards the issue of aging.
In concluding, Rodríguez Abascal defined creating conditions to ensure ageing with dignity as an imperative.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations