Urgent Global Action Needed to Ensure Positive Ageing in Poor Countries, Say Experts

DOHA, Qatar — The International Seminar on Family Networks Population Ageing, the first of its kind to focus on developing countries, concluded by recommending urgent global action to ensure positive ageing for older persons, especially in poor nations.

The Forum, organized by the Doha International Institute-Qatar Foundation, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, Northwestern University and the United Nations Programme on Ageing, was hosted by the Qatari Government on 3-4 June in Doha. The event was attended by more than 40 international ageing experts, including representatives from the United Nations, regional and national non-governmental organizations, academics and researchers that reviewed, presented and assessed the emerging ageing trend, its critical challenges and opportunities.

This Doha meeting aimed at consolidating international efforts to deal with population ageing; to support the roles of families, communities and governments in caring for the older persons; and to help draw an agenda for ageing research and planning at the global, regional and national levels.

The premise of the Doha Ageing Seminar for developing countries was based fully on the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Cairo 1994 Programme of Action (PoA) and the Second World Assembly, known as the Madrid International Conference on Ageing 2002 PoA. UNFPA and its partners support governments, civil societies and family networks in their efforts to implement these PoAs.

In concluding by way forward, UNFPA and its partners will continue supporting collaboration through the expert network of researchers created for population ageing, and will publish in cooperation with the DIFSD a report on this seminar and a book to include ageing studies in developing countries from around the world, including those presented in this meeting.

The Doha meeting ended with sweeping consensus by the participants to urge governments, civil society, international organizations and family networks to prioritize the ageing issue. They recommended the enactment of adequate policies, social safety nets and services to fulfill the pressing needs of older persons and to ensure them a healthy living. They also stressed that acting now and planning ahead for ageing and its consequences on individuals and societies, especially the most vulnerable, will help avert the huge “cost of no action” in the future.

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Contact Information:

Henrietta Aswad
+962777654544
aswad@unfpa.org

Nada Frangieh
+9745348536
nfrangieh@qf.org.qa