Follow-up and Implementation
The Commission for Social Development, a functional commission of ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) plays a steering role in the realisation of the principles of the International Action Plan on Ageing. The Council will have the responsibility for integrating the various facets of demographic ageing into the work of relevant United Nations agencies. (www.un.org/esa/socdev).
First steps in this direction were identified in the context of the 41. Session of the Commission for Social Development as part of the process of general upgrading of population ageing as a topic on the agendas of UN bodies. This envisages incorporating ageing as a cross-cutting theme in the further development of key issues on the social agenda as, for instance, formulated in the World Summit on Social Development - intergenerational solidarity, policies for the disabled, family policy. Also, the ageing issue and demographic change could be included in the focus of the newly formed open-ended ad hoc working group of the General Assembly. This group, formed in December 2002 and described in Resolution 57/270, is tasked with providing recommendations for an integrated, coordinated implementation of the results of key United Nations conferences in the economic and social sector and is chaired by the President of the Assembly.
A future feature of UN strategies on ageing will be the so-called "bottom-up" approach, proceeding from the local level and designed to ensure that the monitoring process of international bodies stays in close contact with the level at which developments originated. Here, as in the follow-up process in general, the non-governmental sector plays a pivotal role. A revision process which originates at the roots vouches for realistic analysis and results and is conducive to a process in which local themes can become global issues, where all involved are bound into a social and political alliance.
The principles of cross-cutting integration and a "bottom-up" approach were anchored in the draft resolution emerging from the 31. Session of the Commission for Social Development and passed to ECOSOC. Finally, the Secretary General was requested to included information on the implementation process in his report to be given at the 58. Session of the General Assembly.