Deputy Minister Zaritsa Dinkova: Demographic sustainability means putting people first
03 December 2021 News
Demographic sustainability means putting people first. Only the joint work of all countries in the region will turn demographic challenges into opportunities. This was stated by Deputy Foreign Minister Zaritsa Dinkova in a speech at the closing of the two-day Ministerial Conference on Demographic Sustainability in Sofia "Building the Demographic Future of Europe: Paths for Societies for Prosperity in a World of Rapid Demographic Change".
The conference was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the United Nations Population Fund, under the patronage of the President of Bulgaria. It brought together in a hybrid format participants from more than 50 countries, from three continents, government representatives, civil society and experts. The Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund and UN Deputy Secretary General Dr. Natalia Kanem arrived on an official visit to Bulgaria, part of which was the opening of the conference.
Deputy Minister Dinkova expressed satisfaction with the fact that Bulgaria was chosen as a co-organizer of this first-of-its-kind event, which launched the Sofia Alliance platform. It will bring together interested governments and politicians at the national level with leading experts from academia in order to share good practices and find common solutions to addressing the demographic challenges in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region.
The end of the Conference on Demographic Sustainability marks the beginning of the Decade of Demographic Sustainability, a process with a horizon of 10 years, during which trends and demographic change can be turned into opportunities for development.
The two-day conference covered topics such as population aging, reproduction, gender equality and family policies, youth aspirations, rural revitalization and the financing of social policies, as well as the links between demography and democracy.