“Demographic Challenges: From Knowledge to Action!” is a conference organized for Latvian Members of Parliament (Saeima) with the aim of Parliamentarians with leading researchers and to promote evidence-informed policy-making in the areas of Demography and Active Ageing.
Top researchers in a variety of fields will present an overview of the current demographic, fertility, migration and ageing trends in Latvia, as well as their effect on the labour market and a variety of other socially important factors.
The keynote presentation “Active Ageing: From Challenge to Opportunity” will be delivered by the Research Lead for the UNECE/ European Commission (DG EMP) Active Ageing Index (AAI) Project Professor of Social Gerontology at Seoul National University and Senior Research Fellow at Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, Professor Asghar Zaid where the latest results of the AAI for Latvia will be presented. After the presentation there will be a discussion where Members of the Saeima will have the opportunity to ask questions to a panel of experts in public health and the workplace environment, labour market economists, and other academic fields within the domains of the components of the Active Ageing Index.
In the second half of the conference, Olga Rastrigina, an expert from the OECD, will demonstrate the latest OECD Tax Benefit Calculator which Members of the Saeima will be able to use to quickly see and compare how tax liabilities and benefit entitlements affect the incomes of working-age families across countries and over time.
Throughout the event, Members of the Saeima will be encouraged to participate in the discussion by asking questions and suggesting areas where additional expertise is needed.
The conference will take place from 9.30 to 16.00 on the 11th of February, 2019 in the Large Guildhall, Amatu st. 6.
The event organized by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Latvia in cooperation with the Saeima Analytical service. The event is part of a series of “Science meets Parliaments/Science meets Regions” Pilot projects supported by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.
Speakers:
Prof. Asghar Zaidi is Professor of Social Gerontology at Seoul National University, Korea; he is also Visiting Professor at London School of Economics and Senior Research Fellow at Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, University of Oxford. Previously, he was Professor in International Social Policy at University of Southampton (UK); Director Research at the UN-Affiliated European Centre Vienna (Austria); Senior Economist at OECD in Paris (France) and Economic Advisor at the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions in London.
Prof. Mihails Hazans is a Professor at the University of Latvia. He is a member of European Economic Association, European Association of Labour Economists, Global Development Network, and Social Science Research Network. Prof. Hazans has served as an expert, consultant or principal investigator in numerous projects for OECD, World Bank, USAID, European Commission, ILO, Global Development Network, European Agency for Reconstruction, European Training Foundation, as well as for various national institutions. He is a member of Advisory Board of Latvian State Employment Agency.
Associate professor Inta Mieriņa is the Director of the Center for Diaspora and migration research at the University of Latvia, as well as a Lead Researcher at the University of Latvia’s Institute of Philosophy and Sociology.
Arnis Kaktiņš is the Executive Director of the Research Centre SKDS, a leading opinion and market research company in Latvia.
Prof. Gunta Lazdāne is the Director of the Institute of Public Health (IPH) in the Riga Stradins University in Latvia. IPH carries out several public health projects including the survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe. From 2003 till 2017 she was the Programme Manager of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme in the Division of Noncommunicable Diseases and Promoting Health through the Life-course, WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Asoc. Prof. Ivars Vanadziņš is the Director of the Institute for Occupational Safety and Environmental Health at Riga Stradins University in Latvia.
Olga Rastrigina is a Tax Benefit Modeller at the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD). She previously worked with EUROMOD as a Senior Research Officer at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex.
Ilmārs Mežs is a Demographer and the former head of the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Latvia.
Aldis Austers, Jānis Kreilis, and many others.
We invite You to register for the conference using the following link: https://www.registration.lv/science-meets-parliaments/en?register
Recommendations on the use of research-based evidence in the Saeima (Latvian Parliament) “The use of research-based evidence in the Latvian parliament”