Background
This homepage gives you an overview of current measures and projects in the field of ageing policy together with the relevant implementation strategies at the regional and national level. Several useful links and downloads are included.
Demographic change in society and its effects on all aspects of life has become increasingly apparent over the past years. This is a historically unique, global phenomenon which calls for new political concepts and intensive international cooperation. In 1982 the United Nations adopted the so-called Vienna International Action Plan on Ageing, the first international document of this kind to focus on the subject of ageing and one which still retains validity for governments and societies today. Twenty years later, the Vienna Plan formed the basis for a new look at the subject of ageing and the adoption of a Second International Action Plan on Ageing by the member states of the United Nations in April 2002 in Madrid. This document, commonly known as the "Madrid Plan", focused intensively on a practical approach to the challenges of demographic change.
Working on this basis, the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) was the first of the five UN Regional Commissions to produce a catalogue of measures reflecting the recommendations of the 55 member states of this specific region. This Regional Implementation Strategy was adopted in September 2002 in Berlin during the UNECE Ministerial Conference on Ageing, which was hosted by the German Federal Government. The conference was attended not only by the governments involved but also by international non-governmental organisations.
This homepage supplies information on how the three documents evolved - the First International Action Plan on Ageing, the Second International Action Plan on Ageing, and the Regional Implementation Strategy. You can also obtain details of the conferences involved and on what is planned for the future.
This website was produced by the Liaison Office for Ageing. It is designed to give you on-going, independent information on the initiatives listed above. The Liaison Office was closely involved in the drafting of the Second International Action Plan on Ageing and in the development of the Regional Implementation Strategy. The Office was sponsored for this purpose by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth during the period April 2000 - June 2003. It is attached to the German Centre of Gerontology (DZA) in Berlin.
