Fourth Review and Appraisal of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002

E/RES/2023/15View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Economic and Social Council, under agenda item 19bSocial development, published in 2023.

What other versions does this mandate have?

3 versions · 2013–2023

2023E/RES/2023/15Fourth review and appraisal of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002LatestCompare with previous version
2018E/RES/2018/6Third review and appraisal of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002Compare with previous version
2013E/RES/2013/29Second review and appraisal of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

2 entities

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 topics

Ageing Ageing Persons Social Policy Social Services

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2024.

2024E/CN.5/2025/5Modalities for the 5th review and appraisal of the implementation of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002 report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

32 operative paragraphs

Recognizes the successful conclusion of the fourth review and appraisal of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002, and its results at the international, regional and national levels, which highlighted that great disparities exist among and within regions in the rate of implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action, that issues such as the eradication of poverty, decent work, social protection systems, economic autonomy and support in conflict or humanitarian emergencies, access to health-care and long-term care services and care work need to be addressed; and that equal, full, effective and meaningful participation of older persons in society, including the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and other health emergencies, to climate change, migration and displacement, as well as addressing the digital gap that currently affects many older persons, are some of the emerging issues that the international community needs to act upon;

Encourages Member States to strengthen further the implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action and use it as a tool for building an inclusive society with intergenerational solidarity in which older persons participate fully and without any kind of discrimination and on the basis of equality in the implementation and attainment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals;

Calls upon Member States to fully utilize the potential of older persons, recognizing intergenerational partnerships and solidarity and the essential contribution that older persons continue to make to the functioning of societies and towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development if adequate guarantees are in place, and encourages Member States to create an enabling environment for the equal, full, effective and meaningful participation of older persons in political, social, economic and cultural life, while taking into account the diversity of situation of older persons and responding to population ageing as well as to multiple forms of discrimination resulting from ageism and other inequalities throughout the life course;

Encourages Member States to take into account the multidimensional nature of the vulnerability of older persons to poverty and economic insecurity, including through the promotion of good health, nutrition, care and well-being, in their implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals at the national level;

Also encourages Member States to establish or strengthen national coordinating bodies or mechanisms, as appropriate, that govern matters relating to ageing and older persons, in order to, inter alia, accelerate the implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action, including its review and appraisal, endowing them with adequate powers, functions and resources in order to improve the evaluation and monitoring of the situation of older persons, and to strengthen the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes sensitive to their needs;

Expresses concern that the growing share of older persons in the population presents a significant additional risk of vulnerability to economic insecurity and poverty and that people living in areas where poverty is endemic, and having endured a life of poverty and deprivation, are often at greater risk of slipping deeper into poverty in their older age;

Calls upon Member States to improve the protection of older persons, particularly older women and older persons with disabilities, including mental impairments, or in situations of dependency, from all forms of violence and abuse, whether it is physical, psychological, sexual, gender-based or economic, as well as from neglect;

Encourages Member States to accelerate their efforts to mainstream ageing into their policy agendas and legislation, bearing in mind the crucial importance of family intergenerational interdependence, solidarity and reciprocity for social development, the realization of all human rights for older persons, the promotion of social integration and the prevention and elimination of ageism and age discrimination against older persons, including by highlighting a gender perspective, bearing in mind that intergenerational solidarity is a fundamental prerequisite for social cohesion and public welfare, and contributes to equity and sustainable development among present and future generations;

Calls upon Member States to invest in strategies and activities and involving all actors of society to promote a healthy lifestyle for all over the life course by encouraging and facilitating physical activity, healthy nutrition, and protective and preventive health interventions, and strengthening mental health and well-being, particularly among older persons;

Encourages Member States to promote the understanding of ageing as an issue of concern to society as a whole, through lifelong education at all levels, in order to combat ageism and discrimination against older persons, taking into account the gender dimension, and to link ageing to other frameworks for social and economic development and human rights;

Also encourages Member States to consider including in their national strategies, inter alia, policy implementation approaches such as economic empowerment and autonomy, participation, gender equality, awareness-raising and capacity development, and such essential policy implementation tools as evidence-based policymaking, mainstreaming, participatory approaches and indicators;

Further encourages Member States to consider setting benchmarks for action at the national level based on the successes and good practices, shortcomings and future priorities identified in their national and regional levels of review and appraisal to accelerate the implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action, bearing in mind the specific needs and concerns of older persons, including through the strengthening of institutional mechanisms, taking measures to enable the equal, full, effective and meaningful participation of older persons, in particular older women, as well as strengthening the collection of quality data disaggregated by sex, age, disability and other characteristics relevant in the national context with no upper age limit, the management of qualitative information, monitoring and evaluation of the situation of older persons, research, analysis and the training of necessary personnel in the field of ageing;

Calls upon Member States to adopt appropriate measures, including, if necessary, legislative measures to promote and protect the rights of older persons and measures aimed at providing economic and social security and health care, while considering the Madrid Plan of Action and mainstreaming a gender perspective, the equal, full, effective and meaningful participation of older persons in the decision-making process affecting their lives, and ageing with dignity;

Encourages Member States to formulate and implement sustainable, inclusive and equitable pension policies and seek to improve the effectiveness of their social protection and security systems, taking into consideration that it is necessary to promote decent work, which will subsequently allow for decent retirement, as well as to prevent old-age poverty, including by recognizing unpaid care work over the life course in pension policies;

Also encourages Member States to promote and facilitate the participation of older persons in the labour market as long as they want to work and are able to do so, and improve active and inclusive labour market policies and social protection systems that respond to an ageing workforce, to promote intergenerational dialogue in the workplace, to enhance skills development and family-friendly working arrangements, and to provide healthy, safe and accessible workplaces;

Further encourages Member States to promote and strengthen the estimation of the caregiving contribution and other activities of older persons to the economy in national accounts, including recognition of unpaid care for family members, in particular by older women, and to ensure that research on national accounts inform policymaking;

Encourages Member States to address the well-being and adequate health care of older persons, including affordable, accessible, quality and integrated long-term care and support services as well as palliative care, including through expanding educational opportunities for all health professionals working with older persons, and recognizes that the incidence and impacts of non-communicable diseases and disability in older age can be largely prevented or reduced with an approach that incorporates evidence-based, affordable, cost-effective, population-wide and multisectoral interventions over the life course;

Also encourages Member States to harness scientific research and expertise and realize the potential of information and communications technologies, including new technologies, assistive technologies, as well as rapid technological change, to focus on, inter alia, the individual, social, educational and health implications of ageing, in particular in developing countries, and to provide universal and affordable access to and use of these technologies to close all digital divides that can be experienced by older persons, including between and within countries, the rural-urban digital divide, the gender digital divide, and between youth and older persons;

Further encourages Member States to promote digital literacy with a special focus on enhancing the digital skills and competencies of older persons, including through digital training and assistance, without discrimination of any kind, including socioeconomic status, education level, race and/or ethnicity, gender and disability as well as language barriers, by taking into account national and regional contexts, in order to promote the digital inclusion of older persons;

Invites Member States to establish and/or strengthen partnerships with civil society organizations, such as organizations of older persons and academia, and with the private sector in order to improve their national capacity for policy formulation, implementation and monitoring in the area of ageing, and encourages Member States to support the national and international research community in developing studies on the impact of the Madrid Plan of Action on older persons and national social policies;

Stresses the need for additional capacity-building at the national level guided by each country’s needs in order to accelerate the implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action, and in this connection encourages Member States to support the United Nations trust fund for ageing in order to enable the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat to provide expanded assistance to countries, upon their request;

Invites Member States as well as other major national and international stakeholders to continue their cooperation with the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, as the United Nations global focal point on ageing, in further implementing the Madrid Plan of Action;

Acknowledges the essential contributions of the United Nations regional commissions to the implementation, review and appraisal of the Madrid Plan of Action, including through the organization of regional review and appraisal meetings and the preparation of their outcome documents, invites Member States to strengthen, as appropriate, their cooperation with the regional commissions to accelerate the implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action, and calls upon the Secretary-General to strengthen the work of the regional commissions on ageing to enable them to enhance their regional implementation activities;

Requests the regional commissions to continue to facilitate, including through their intergovernmental bodies, the accelerated implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action based on the priorities identified in the outcomes of the regional review and appraisal exercises, to ensure that ageing is mainstreamed into policy documents and as a modality for the full, equal, effective and meaningful inclusion and active participation of persons of all ages in the implementation and attainment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals;

Invites its functional commissions, within their mandates, to consider mainstreaming ageing issues, inter alia, by including ageing and the concerns of older persons in the emerging issues under their programmes of work, as appropriate, bearing in mind the importance of improving United Nations coordination and strengthening capacity-building, where needed, in order to improve the situation of older persons;

Invites all relevant United Nations entities that can contribute to advancing the situation of older persons to give greater priority, within their respective mandates and using existing coordination mechanisms such as the Inter-Agency Group on Ageing, to addressing the needs and concerns of older persons, while maximizing synergies, including with the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, ensuring that current and future generations of older persons are full participants in the development process, including organizations of older persons, and are not denied the opportunity to share its benefits;

Encourages the international community to enhance international cooperation, inter alia, cooperation among Member States, to support national efforts, upon request, to eradicate poverty in all its forms and dimensions, in keeping with internationally agreed goals, in order to achieve sustainable social and economic support for older persons, and to build capacity on ageing through stronger partnerships with civil society, such as organizations of older persons, academia, research foundations and community- and faith-based organizations, and with the private sector;

Encourages the international community and the relevant organizations of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, to support national efforts, upon request, and to provide funding for research and the collection of data disaggregated by age, in addition to data disaggregated by sex and disability, in order to better understand the challenges and opportunities presented by population ageing and to provide policymakers with more accurate, practical and specific information and analysis on ageing, gender and disability, such as for policy planning, monitoring and evaluation;

Encourages the international community to develop comparable, disaggregated and universal datasets of ageing to enhance the quality of data-driven policies and to make adequate and reliable comparisons related to the demographic structures of societies;

Decides to consider the preparations for and observance of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Second World Assembly on Ageing at the sixty-third session, within the modalities of the fifth review and appraisal of the implementation of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing;

Requests the Secretary-General to follow up on the outcomes of the fourth review and appraisal of the Madrid Plan of Action, and in particular the relationship between development, social policy and the human rights of older persons to, inter alia, better inform the future work of relevant United Nations entities and bodies, including the Open-ended Working Group on Ageing;

Also requests the Secretary-General to submit to the Commission for Social Development at its sixty-third session, in 2025, a report on the modalities for the fifth review and appraisal of Madrid International Plan of Action and the implementation of the present resolution.

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