Climate change and ageing are two of the biggest issues facing humanity this century, yet explicit links between the two are rarely made.  HelpAge International (HAI) has been working with older people in Africa, Asia and Latin America to understand the impacts that climate change is having on their communities.  As 99-year-old Ethiopian Abdullah explains, "The weather has changed completely. There used to be a lot more rain, but now it is dry. The weather started changing about 30 years ago."

HAI is calling on policy makers to implement a package of "age-friendly" measures to enable older people to be included in adaptation measures within the "post-Copenhagen" agenda by:

HelpAge has recently published a full article on ageing and climate change- read it here!  To learn more about this campaign, visit them online today.

December 10th was the 51st anniversary of signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  In recognition of this day, we draw your attention to a joint statement on the rights of older people, developed in tandem between the IFA and our partners AARP, Global Action on Aging, HelpAge International, International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG), International Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing (IAHSA), and International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, Inc. (INPEA).  This statement will be officially presented at the upcoming United Nations Commission for Social Development in February 2010. 

Bringing attention to the rights of older people is as critical today as ever.  Discrimination and violated rights continue to marginalize and excluded older people from society.  Existing human rights mechanisms are not sufficient and the time has come to explore new mechanisms to better protect their rights.  At the upcoming General Assembly we will urge the Commission for Social Development to recommend that Member States explore new mechanisms to protect the rights of all older women and men, including the establishment of a special rapporteur and adopting a convention on the rights of older people.  Read the full statement - available from the AARP website - here.

Following the IFA's 2008 Senior Officials Meeting held in Montreal on the theme of Ageing-in-Place, the China National Committee on Ageing's representatives had this to say: "This full scheduled meeting enabled us learn more ageing-in-place situations in other countries in such a short period and enlarge our view on ageing services, which was a valuable experience for us".

Building on the outcomes and relationships of our past Senior Officials meetings, the IFA will once again host this one day forum, immediately prior to the opening of the IFA 10th Global Conference on Ageing on the 3rd of May 2010 in Melbourne, Australia.  Over 400 invitations have gone to Government Officials across the globe and already we have had positive attendance responses from the United States, China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Australia and many other State and Federal governments.  The theme for this Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) focuses on the issues of Social Inclusion for an Ageing Population.  Download the background document here.

 

This is a unique opportunity for representing governments to share, learn and establish ongoing networks across the globe.  Please contact Mr. Greg Shaw if you are interested in attending or if you have the names and contact details (email addresses essential) of government officials who should have been invited.

Building on the success of 2007, the 2011 Festival of International Conferences on Caregiving, Disability, Aging and Technology (FICCDAT) will be taking place in Toronto Canada from June 5-8th.  The new conference website has recently been launched.  Find it online here.

FICCDAT is growing!  2011 will feaTURE 6 concurrent international conferences.  FICCDAT 2011 will bring together six important and different conferences all focused on enhancing the lives of seniors, persons with disabilities and their family caregivers. 

Between June 5-8, 2011 rehabilitation, social and health services providers, government policy makers, researchers, family caregivers, students, seniors and persons with disabilities from around the world will gather in Toronto, Canada to explore issues facing aging populations, the implications for healthcare systems and service providers, the roles and responsibilities of family caregivers and policy and how new research findings and technologies are leading new and practical solutions.  Although it is more than a year away, you can be sure that IFA will be involved!

In November, the latest edition of Global Ageing was published.  An electronic PDF version is also available under the members section of the IFA website.  More information about the IFA journal is available here.

The next version of the IFA journal (Volume 5, Issue 3) will be released within the first few months of the new year.  The IFA is pleased to recognize that Dr. Grace Clark will be serving as the chief editor for Global Ageing in the new year.  The IFA will now be accepting advertising in our Journal, and terms and conditions are available here.

The IFA is pleased to  support the work of our members by providing an international platform to disseminate information on local projects.  At the request of member Dr. Alakananda Banerjee, we have included information regarding his new project in New Delhi.  The concept of this project is to provide self care and mutual help to older people through an active ageing model.  Dr. Banerjee's work focuses on empowering the elderly with awareness of non-comminicable health issues among 100 elderly persons chosen from this community. 12 medical professionals are involved and will be working to train and educate 10 leaders out of these 100. 

These leaders shall be named Gerontological promoters(GP).  Those who are enrolled in the program would go through an examination and basic functional and cognitive measurements. These 10 GPs would in turn be given 10 elderly from the group to train on the 3 concepts, and progress would be monitored every 3 months over a year.  Tis longitudinal study is inteded to achieve several objectives, including:

If you are interested in finding out more information about this study or would be interested in contributing to it, please contact Dr. Banerjee directly.

Technology has enormous potential to help better the lives of people, but it is people who are the real solutions to the world's problems.  A broad dialogue between a diverse group of people - young and old, rich and poor - can exponentially expand our collective ability to solve problems and innovate as a global community.  Dialogue Cafe works to facilitate communication between people from all walks of life, across the world, to address social issues ranging from youth literacy to urban development.  "Dialogue Café is an extremely important tool to develop knowledge globally, to educate" says one user. 

Recently launched in Istanbul, Dialogue Cafe's premise is that given the opportunity, ordinary people will explore their common interests, even across geo-political divides. Dialogue Cafés around the world will be linked by high definition screens so that ordinary people from different cultures can meet, talk and innovate together. The cafes are a bottom-up movement that complements the tradition of addressing sustainability issues from the top.  Each cafe will have TelePresence screens that will enable people to chat, exchange ideas and collaborate in new ways. People can be directly involved in creating solutions in their communities - solutions that need not be isolated.  Find out how to get involved online and start the conversation!