In the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) region, people today live healthier and longer than ever before, which is a great achievem ent. Accompanied with the trend towards having fewer children, this is leading to the ageing of the population, a stage in the universal process known as the demographic transition. Populations in the UNECE region are entering or have recently entered this stage, which holds significant opportunities but also comes with a number of challenges. The universal nature andbroad implications of ageing require that policy responses are discussed internationally, cover a wide spectrum of economic and social issues and involve a broad range of stakeholders.
In the context of the United Nations, ageing was first put on the international policy agenda at the World Assembly on Ageing in Vienna in 1982. Subsequently, the United Nations Principles for Older Persons were developed and 1999 was proclaimed International Year of Older Persons. The Second World Assembly on Ageing in Madrid in 2002 set the agenda for discussing the far-reaching implications of population ageing across all spheres of society. The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) was concretized for the UNECE region in the Regional Implementation Strategy (RIS) a
dopted at the UNECE Ministerial Conference on Ageing in Berlin in the same year. Five years later, ministers and Government representatives came together again in León, Spain, at the UNECE Ministerial Conference entitled “A Society for All Ages: Challenges and Opportunities”, to review the progress made in implementing this Strategy. (Fonte: www.unece.org)