Ministry of Cooperative, Labour and Social Welfare signed MOUs with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Iran

Ministry of Cooperative, Labour and Social Welfare (MCLSW) signed two MOUs with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Iran for collaboration in the areas of the Demographic Dividend and Population Ageing, AVA Diplomatic reports.

The MOUs were signed by presence of a number of Ministry’s high officials including; Deputy for Entrepreneurship and Employment Development, Head of State Welfare Organization,  Director General of Int’l Affairs, several DGs as well as Dr. Leila Joudane, UNFPA Representative.

Mr. Seyed Hassan Hefdahtan, Adviser to the Minister and Director General of Int’l Affairs stated that; “Current population structure creates “window of opportunity” which can potentially turn into the “Demographic Dividend”.

He added that these MOUs are going to be in the format for an annual work plan but, we are developing a 5 year roadmap for achieving the strategic goals of the Country.

Dr. Mohseni Bandpey,  Head of State  Welfare Organization announced that they has established a Secretariat for ageing that has designed a technical roadmap to monitor the ageing population health, age-friendly environment, empowerment of older people, social support as well as their respect, dignity and physical health.

Dr. Issa Mansouri, Deputy for Entrepreneurship and Employment Development said that; “Investing on human resources should lead to sustainability of the demographic dividend approach among the ministry and the government.  We live in an era that divergence of population growth and at the same time increase of population at the working age which has its pros and cons.  We emphasize on benefitting the present human resources while adopting new methods of policy makings.

Dr. Leila Joudane, UNFPA Representative welcomed the signature of MOUs in a year called “Resilient Economy: Employment and Production” and stated that ; “ In these documents, harnessing the Demographic Dividend in Iran as well as responding the rapid population ageing are prioritized. UNFPA Iran will make every effort to facilitate exchange of the international knowledge and experiences for achieving the goals of the Country Programme which is very much in line with the national priorities, i.e, Population Decree, Resilient Economy as well as the 6th National Development Plan.

She emphasized on the resource mobilization and inter-sectoral collaboration for attaining the demographic dividend in Iran through the support of the Ministry.