AGÊNCIA O GLOBO Márcia Foletto

Age-friendly cities

Global ageing and urbanization are successes of humanity

1st trend - The world is rapidly ageing:

• In 2006, the number of persons aged 60 and older was 650 million.
• In 2025, the number will be almost double: 1.2 billion people will be 60 and older.
• By 2050, there will be 2 billion people aged 60 and over in the world.

2nd trend - Our world is a growing city:

• In 2007, over half of the global population lives in cities. By 2030 about three out of five people will live in cities.

Both trends are occurring at a faster rate in developing countries.

Older people play crucial roles in all societies

In our fast ageing world, older people are increasingly playing a crucial role - by volunteering work, transmitting experience and knowledge, helping their families with caring responsibilities or in paid work. These contributions can only be ensured if older persons enjoy good health and if societies address their needs.

WHO’s response

To help cities make the most of an ever growing older population, WHO is releasing the Global Age-friendly Cities Guide on the occasion of the International Day of Older Persons - 1 October 2007.

Altogether 35 citites in 22 countries from all continents participated in the study - Istanbul, London, Melbourne, Mexico City, Moscow, Nairobi, New-Delhi, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai and Tokyo are included along with other cities.

The Guide is an innovative initiative because:

• Older people themselves were active participants in the project: they decided what an age-friendly city is. About 1500 older people described the advantages and disadvantages faced in eight areas of city living:
  
  
• outdoor spaces and buildings,
• transportation,
• housing,
• social participation,
• respect and social inclusion,
• civic participation and employment,
• communication and information; and
• community support and health services.
  
  
• Older people's concerns and ideas were complemented by some 750 caregivers and service providers.
  
  
• It is one of the first research studies on ageing across culturally diverse countries/cities from an active ageing and public health perspectives.
  
  
• It is intended for a wide range of audiences including the lay public.
  
  
• It is user-friendly: the core of the Guide is the checklist, which is a tool for a city's self assessment and map to chart progress.
  
  
• Every city, regardless of its current level of age-friendliness, can use the Guide to improve or monitor any aspect of urban life.
  
  
• It proposes easy ways to make a city more age-friendly: affordable measures that can quickly be implemented by any city are explained in the Guide, for example: having affordable transportation costs; providing special customer service arrangements, such as separate queues; holding public events at convenient times; having courteous and helpful service providers promoting and supporting job opportunities for older people; and providing clear information about health and social services.
  
  

WHO is the focal point

WHO will maintain the leadership, working with multiple partners (including, NGOs, government bodies, the academic and the private sector) to support and guide the development of age-friendly cities based on the Guide.

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