Overview of the process for developing the Decade of Healthy Ageing
The United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021-2030 is the culmination of over four years of collaboration between the World Health Organization and many stakeholders and partners across the world. These include governments, international organizations, other United Nations (UN) agencies, civil society organizations, older peoples’ associations, academia, professional associations, interest groups, the private sector and individuals.
The Global strategy and action plan on ageing and health 2016-2030 provided the rationale for the Decade. The first Action Plan 2016-2020, further refined into ten priorities, was intended to develop the evidence based and the partnerships for a Decade of concerted action.
A broad iterative consultative process began to develop a Decade proposal starting at the end of 2018, when WHO conducted an online survey to seek ideas on priority issues and outcomes for country level action. Responses came from 160 focal points for ageing in countries and other partners, spanning 82 countries. A review of other UN decades of action was conducted to learn about their drivers of success or barriers to implementation. Discussion about these took place during various global and regional meetings which then fed into an initial concept note for the Decade prepared by the WHO Secretariat.
During 2019, the consultation process accelerated. Global and regional opportunities were taken to harness key political moments to build momentum and engagement for the Decade and listen to different perspectives. These included meetings of the G20 (hosted by Japan), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (hosted by Chile) and a High-Level Forum on the Silver Economy (hosted by Finland). Discussions on the Decade were also held at a side event at the 72nd World Health Assembly, in WHO Regional Committee meetings, with UN and international organization meetings under the auspices of the informal United Nations Interagency Group on Ageing, and with civil society organizations.
Based on the concept note and informed by all the Member State-led and other discussions, WHO developed a preliminary draft proposal. An independent evaluation of the Global strategy and action plan was also carried out to leverage the experience and lessons learned from implementation of the strategy to better develop a proposal for a Decade of Healthy Ageing. During this period, a dedicated Decade webpage was launched on the WHO website to disseminate progress and updates, and the development of a new Knowledge Platform for the Decade began.
In mid-2019, a Zero Draft of the Decade proposal was disseminated through the Decade website in the 6 official UN languages. A public online survey, asking for responses to the Zero Draft, ran from May to October 2019. Over 300 submissions were received from a wide variety of stakeholders. During the second half of 2019, several further drafts of the Decade proposal were developed through a process of soliciting feedback, collation and further sharing.
Throughout this entire consultation process, 89 Member States plus the European Union, 19 UN Agencies and international organizations and 300 Non-State Actors were engaged and provided inputs.
Towards the end of 2019, the Decade proposal draft document was finalized. It was submitted as an agenda item for consideration by Member States of the World Health Assembly in their 2020 decision-making processes.
In 2020, the proposal was reviewed by the governing bodies of the World Health Assembly. On 7 February, the 146th Executive Board decided to recommend that the Decade proposal should go forward for consideration as a Resolution by the 73rd World Health Assembly. A total of 40 Member States (representing 130 Member States) and 11 non-State Actors spoke in support.
On 3 August, Member States of the (continued) 73rd World Health Assembly endorsed the proposal for a Decade of Healthy Ageing 2020–2030. They asked WHO’s Director-General to report back on its implementation progress every 3 years (2023, 2026 and 2029). They also asked the Director-General to transmit this decision to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for consideration of the proposal for the Decade by the United Nations General Assembly. This was communicated accordingly, prompting champion Member States to work together in New York to propose a Resolution tabled through the Global Health and Foreign Policy agenda item for discussion in the General Assembly.
On 14 December, the General Assembly welcomed the Decade proposal and decided to proclaim 2021-2030 as the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing ( Resolution 75/131).
So now the work of the Decade begins.