►     The Silver Workers Institute

The Four Pillars Programme of The Geneva Association is a research programme set up in 1987 with the aim of studying the key importance in the new service economy of Social Security, Insurance, Savings and Employment. The programme focuses on the future of pensions, welfare and employment.

The main reasons for this programme have been:

• complementarity between social security and insurance;
• the changing perspective of the welfare state, employment and the life-cycles;
• changing demography and its financing impact.

The Geneva Association launched its "Four Pillars" Research Programme with a view to identifying possible solutions to the issue of the future financing of pensions and, more generally, to organising social security systems. Demographic trends – especially increased life expectancy – could be seen as positive if we were able to devise ways of enabling "ageing in good-health populations" to make a valid economic and social contribution to the functioning of our service economies over the decades to come.

Created in 2007, the Silver Workers Institute is an independent and apolitical research and information centre based in Geneva with an international focus on labour/work issues for seniors engaged in any productive activity, from both a company and public policy perspective. More... 

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►     Seminars and conferences over the last 6 years

• National Conference on Positive Aging, Eckerd College, St Petersburg, Florida, 7-9 December 2009. Presentation by Prof. Deller.
• World Ageing and Generations Congress, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Organisation of three sessions by The Geneva Association and the Silver Workers Institute: Silver Workers—Individual and Policy Perspectives, with speakers from Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K. and France (presentation: Silver Workers: Key Issues and Policies in Europe); Silver Workers—Meeting Company Challenges, with speakers from the U.K., Switzerland and Belgium; and Silver Workers—Coordinating Public Policies and Key Factors, with speakers from Switzerland, France and Australia.
• World Congress of Gerontology, Paris, 5-9 July 2009. Organisation of a session by The Geneva Association and the Silver Workers Institute, with speakers from the U.S., U.K., France, the Netherlands and Germany. Presentation of a paper Key Policies and Practices for Silver Work in Europe, by G. Reday-Mulvey.
• The Geneva Association, Macros and The Risk Institute, The New Welfare: The Counter Ageing Society, 8 October 2007, Turin
• ISSA (International Social Security Association), 3^rd International Research Conference on Social Security “Social Security and the Labour Market: A Mismatch?”, 5-7 March 2007, Warsaw. The Geneva Association organised and chaired the session “Can Insurance and Savings Mechanisms encourage Labour market Flexibility?”
• Conference at the University of Geneva, Chances et Défis du Vieillissement, 6-11 November 2006, Geneva.
• Congress VIVA 50+ – World Ageing and Generations Congress, 29 September-1 October 2005, St Gallen. The Geneva Association organised and chaired two sessions on The Future of Pensions and on Policies for Senior Employment.
• 2^nd Conference on Health, Ageing and Work, with the support of the Central European Initiative and hosted by Assicurazioni Generali, 21-22 October 2004, Trieste.
• The Economics of an Ageing Society: The Future of Funded Systems in Europe, organised jointly with SwissRe and Avenir Suisse, 27-28 November 2003, Zurich.
• Work Beyond 60: Preparing for the Demographic Shock, joint conference with the Club of Rome and the Risk Institute, 6-7 March 2003, Vienna.
• First Four Pillars Social Security Lecture, Securing the Future for Old Age in Europe, given par Prof. Alan Walker, Sheffield University, 9 April 2002, Madrid.

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