FOREWORD
The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing and the Political
Declaration adopted at the Second World Assembly on Ageing in April 2002
mark a turning point in how the world addresses the key challenge of “building a society for all ages”.
The world has changed almost beyond recognition since the first World
Assembly on Ageing in 1982. Where once population ageing was mostly a
concern of developed countries, today it is gaining real momentum in developing countries as well. And where once ageing may have been thought by
some to be a stand-alone issue or afterthought, today we understand that such
a dramatic demographic transformation has profound consequences for every
aspect of individual, community, national and international life.
The Madrid Plan of Action offers a bold new agenda for handling the
issue of ageing in the 21st-century. It focuses on three priority areas: older persons and development; advancing health and well-being into old age; and
ensuring enabling and supportive environments. It is a resource for policymaking, suggesting ways for Governments, non-governmental organizations,
and other actors to reorient the ways in which their societies perceive, interact
with and care for their older citizens. And it represents the first time
Governments agreed to link questions of ageing to other frameworks for social
and economic development and human rights, most notably those agreed at the
United Nations conferences and summits of the past decade.