Emmanuel Faber

Chairman and CEO, Danone

Executive Summary

In the 21st century, populations in many countries around the world are aging at an accelerated rate. Over 20% of the population in prominent examples such as Japan and Germany are the elderly. Due to a continuously declining natural population growth rate, China is quickly catching up to both of these countries, with 11.9% of the total population reaches 65 years or older by 2018. According to statistics from the United Nations, by 2037, 20% of the population in China will be comprised of the elderly. This transformation of the country’s demographics has brought on a series of challenges for Chinese society, including how to care for the elderly, the increasing weight of healthcare on the economy, the gap between supply and demand for healthcare resources, and more. At the same time, the country’s citizens don’t have enough knowledge about health. More than half of the elderly population don’t know how to prevent or treat chronic diseases, which account for 86% of all deaths in the country.

Danone believes that to proactively meet these challenges, the country needs to strengthen its effort to build a healthy China in order to provide robust support for the sustainable development of the population and the economy. Building a healthy China should be guided by the strategy of Governance for Health, and create practical implementation steps to put Health in All Policies, create mechanisms for Health Impact Assessments, and raise health literacy. In today’s society, many different complex factors as policies, economics, society, the physical environment, as well as behavior interact with each other to influence health. Any public policy on health would necessarily involve collaboration and execution by many different bureaus and agencies in many different sectors. These factors are far beyond the scope and capabilities of the Ministry of Health alone. This is why Governance for Health relies on cooperation between all of government and all of society to ensure that stakeholders such as the government at various levels and bureaus as well as non-government organizations, academia, enterprise, public service providers, as well as the general population and community can participate and provide a diverse source of policy suggestions and solutions. Health in All Policies stresses a macro-view which combines all related factors such as economics, culture, and the environment to create a policy that hits the issue from all sides and mobilizes collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders. Creating a Health Impact Assessment mechanism will help ensure the harmonious development of the economy and health, building a healthy China with a more forward-looking framework. Raising health literacy among China’s citizens will address the issue at its roots, fully leveraging the proactive capabilities of Chinese citizens on preventing and treating chronic diseases.

In this paper, Danone combines international best practices with practical experience from its own business divisions to provide actionable strategies and suggestions towards building a healthy China.

Download the full report：The Demographic Challenge:Developing a Healthy China