Who am I and what am I doing in NYC?

My name is Magali Girod and I come from France. I am an undergraduate student in the Institute of Political Science in Aix-en-Provence. For my third year abroad, I decided to do an internship at Global Action on Aging, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) advocating for older people's rights. I arrived in New York to work with GAA and Susanne Paul at the beginning of October. I will be here until the end of June. 

The issues I studied at GAA: 

I have several missions at GAA. The first and most important one is to look for articles on the Internet in order to post them every week on the Website and to send them out to inform people through our listserv. I write a little summary for each article in order to post it in our index section or in the front page of the Website. 

I specifically look for articles on pension issues in the United States but also in the rest of the world: France, UK, Germany, Japan, Brazil, African countries. I look on many different newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, le Monde and many others. 

Since I arrived, I have followed the mutual fund scandals in the US. The big clients and the directors of these mutual funds have done illegal trading (late trading and market timing) at the expense of small long-term investors. These small investors, most of them retirees or future retirees, have seen their income drop and have difficulties financing all their basic needs. 

Another income issue I follow is the increasing amount of debt among the elderly population. In a recent report, I found out that the average credit card debt of Americans over 65 increased by 89 percent between 1992 and 2001. And, at the same time, the number of older Americans filing for bankruptcy has tripled. Older Americans become trapped in this vicious debt cycle because they have low incomes and very few savings or assets. Simultaneously, they face rising costs in their daily lives for health coverage and housing. 

The last scandal I studied in the US regarded Social Security. Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, asked Congress to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits. He wanted to use Social Security to reduce the federal deficit rather than increasing general taxes. Both Democrats and Republicans oppose Mr. Greenspan's arguments. But none of them have yet made serious counter-proposals on this politically explosive topic.

In Europe, governments are trying to reform the pension system to make it self-sustainable and to cope with the increasing number of older people. With baby boomers coming to age, we worry that there are not going to be enough workers to pay for the benefits of retirees. European systems were built as a pay-as-you-go system. In other words, today's workers are paying for today's retirees and this gives workers the right to a future pension. If there are not enough workers in the future, then the state will face difficulties to pay benefits. This is why European governments are changing their pension systems. However, they face strong opposition from the people who do not want to see their pension benefits or their health coverage reduced or destroyed. Pensioners in France, Germany and Italy demonstrated in the streets to protest against these reforms. 

Through my research study on the Internet, I also discovered that the United Kingdom was facing its own issue: some retirees do not receive a pension. For example, after their steel company went bankrupt, and that the pension fund served to pay existing pensioners first, the other workers who had contributed did not get anything. To cope with this situation the British government passed a bill creating the Pension Protection Fund (PPF). This fund will be very similar to the US Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). If a company goes bankrupt, then the fund takes over the plan. This is a solution, but in the US the PBGC faces a huge debt because companies handed over their funds too easily. 

In Japan, the population is aging and the government does not have enough money to pay everyone's benefits. Another problem in Japan is that even though contributions are mandatory, many workers, especially young people, opt-out of the system, leaving the government with less income to pay pension benefits for an increasing number of retirees. 

In Africa, pensions are really important. It is sometime the only source of income in a family. With the increasing rate of death among young adults and adults, due to HIV/AIDS, more and more grandparents are in charge of their grandchildren. This money is essential, although not enough, for the new family's survival. 

A possible solution to insure a minimum income for old people in least developed countries is the non-contributory pension system. Non-contributory pensions are pension benefits given to every old person even if they did not contribute. The government is the one in charge to make the system sustainable. This system developed in Brazil and South Africa has shown positive effect on the well-being and the security of older people and their families. It can slowly help them out of poverty. 

Finally, the last pension issue I would like to talk about is how women face retirement. They go through the same steps as men do to plan for a financially secure retirement, but many societal factors put women at a disadvantage. Women live longer than men, but their wages are generally only 76% of men's for doing identical jobs. Furthermore, women who jump in and out of the workforce to take care of children or elderly parents don't sustain the "pension clock" long enough to accumulate much. As a result, women need to start saving earlier and smarter in order to remain financially independent in old age. When I find articles on this issue I always post them because I think it is essential for women to be informed that they need to save. 

GAA website: 

The issues I just mentioned are all posted on GAA's website. With the other interns, we create the front page and update all the links and pages every Fridays. 

To know how many people come and visit the website I run a program every Monday called Webtrends. This program gives me the number of hits and the number of unique visitors per week. I make graphs every week to organize all our data and it gives us, our donors and our friends an idea of the evolution of the website. We usually get an average of 200,000 hits per week. 

Global Action on Aging and the UN: 

Because Global Action on Aging is linked to the UN, I have a pass that allows me to attend any conference or open meeting. I have therefore been able to attend the Commission on Social Development, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Third Committee when the General Assembly was in session.

These experiences are unique and have allowed me to learn more about international relations, human rights and the UN system. I also found out that even a small organization can make a difference through its action.

Thank you very much for your attention. If you want to know more about any of these topics, I welcome your questions. You can also visit our website or subscribe to our listserv.