UN Decade of Healthy Ageing: Get on board!

Based on a proposal of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations have endorsed a Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021-2030. The Decade is a global collaboration that brings together diverse sectors and stakeholders to improve the lives of older people, their families and communities. Those stakeholders include governments, civil society, international organizations, professionals, academic institutions, the media and the private sector.

The Decade is built around four action areas that are strongly interconnected:

• combatting ageism: changing how we think, feel and act towards age and ageing
• age-friendly environments: developing communities in ways that foster the abilities of older people
• delivering person centred integrated care and primary health services tailored to older people
• providing older people who need it with access to long-term care.

To support the different activities to be developed during the next ten years, an interactive platform has been launched. This platform offers multiple opportunities to find, share, and produce the knowledge needed to create a world where all people can live long and healthy lives.

What can you do?

• The Platform already contains a lot of information and will continue to develop. To be informed about the main initiatives, you can subscribe to the newsletter.
• Get involved in the platform to share knowledge, connect, find resources.
• Contribute to the call for input on ageism through the ages, notably in sharing interviews, video, film, guidance, report, data, event showcasing how ageism affects us through our lifetime. The objective is to encourage the engagement of different stakeholders in the Global Campaign to Combat Ageism, and build a movement to change the narrative around age and ageing.
  You can contribute until 17 September.

AGE has actively supported the whole process leading to the official launch of the Platform and is committed to give visibility to it at EU level. We are also working in close collaboration with the WHO and other civil society organisations at global level to make the best of this Decade. At the moment, our campaign “Ageing Equal” is listed in the INNOVATE section.

Some AGE members are already active on the platform, for instance:

• One of our Slovenian member is registered in the CONNECT Hub – ZDUS
• In the section “Voices”, the story of Dream Factory has been shared by one of Dutch member, Laura Christ involved in the Invisible Talents Project (Erasmus+)

For more information, please contact Julia Wadoux, julia.wadoux@age-platform.eu