A/HRC/42/43/Add.2 not been leveraged into a significant reduction in poverty. Poverty has become entrenched, not only in rural areas, where the majority of the older persons live, but also in urban centres (A/HRC/26/28/Add.1, paras. 7–8). 10. The Independent Expert recognizes the significant challenges facing Mozambique in its endeavours to eradicate poverty, including the legacy of its colonial past and the war, along with current threats such as natural disasters. In addition, public health challenges, such as malaria, which remains one of the most common causes of death, and the prevalence of HIV, although decreasing, are major issues of concern (A/HRC/34/59/Add.2, para. 13). 11. It is estimated that around 5 per cent of the Mozambican population is above the age of 60, giving it the third-largest older population in southern Africa in absolute terms, 1 of whom 72 per cent live in the rural areas. The older population in Mozambique is expected to increase to an estimated 9 million in the 2070s. That will change the old-age dependency ratio, from above 5 per cent currently to more than 12 per cent. 2 12. Older persons in Mozambique have a labour participation rate of 74 per cent, one of the highest in the world. Older women have a literacy rate of 8.8 per cent compared to a literacy rate of 46.3 per cent for older men.3 13. While the age cut-off officially used for the identification of older persons in Mozambique was defined in resolution No. 84/2002 by the Council of Ministers, which considers a woman aged 55 and over or a man aged 60 and over to be an older person, it is important to bear in mind that notions of age vary due to differences in circumstances, conditions, cultures and other considerations and factors, which may be subject to change. 14. The Independent Expert wishes to recall that the mandate has conceived ageing as a social contextual construct, involving far more life course factors and conditions, such as biological and socioeconomic determinants, than the chronological/numerical age. The intrinsic issue of relativity of age, place and path of life is illustrated in the present case, as human beings who have been through conditions of war, conflict and calamities of nature cannot be compared with the healthy ageing metrics of affluent societies. Ageing in Mozambique has also to be understood against the background of a life expectancy of 55 years. 15. The country ranks low on the Global AgeWatch Index for 2015, at 94th overall. 4 Its highest ranking is in the income security domain at 84th, with a higher than average old age poverty rate for its region (19.1 per cent). It ranks low in the health domain at 94th, owing to low levels of life expectancy at 60, and in the enabling environment domain at 96th owing to the low satisfaction level of older persons with safety (31 per cent), civic freedom (60 per cent) and public transport (31 per cent). III. Administrative, legal, institutional and policy framework 16. Mozambique is a republic and a multiparty democracy. It has an executive president as head of State and Government, who is directly elected for a five-year term and serves a maximum of two terms. The President appoints the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers. 1 2 3 4 4 See Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas, population projections 2007–2040 (figures for 2019), based on 2007 census; António Francisco and Gustavo Sugahara, “Population ageing in Mozambique: threat or opportunity?”, presentation at the annual Week of Social Protection, Maputo, 18–22 June 2012; and António Francisco, Gustavo Sugahara and Peter Fisker, “Growing old in Mozambique: dynamics of well-being and poverty”, Institute of Social and Economic Studies (2013). Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division World Population Prospects: the 2012 Revision, (June 2013). See United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, data for the Sustainable Development Goals (2015). See www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/population-ageing-data/country-ageingdata/?country=Mozambique.