DAY 1

Webinar: Sharing knowledge
to create age-friendly environments
Theme: Why do we have to create an age-friendly environment?

SocialDeterminants ofHealthy Ageing
Housing

Employment

HealthSystems

SocialExclusion

Increased
Urbanization

Gender Norms

Family & Peer
Influence

Cultural Values &Traditions

Creating age-friendly environments require
efforts to address the social determinantsof healthy ageing by strengthening
community engagement, collecting dataon groups with disproportionate disease
burden, understanding the barriers
experienced by older adults.

08
Outdoor Spaces& Buildings

Age-friendly
domains

Breakout discussion: What does “age-friendly” mean to us?
Policy and Guidelines
at national- level toassist local community
initiatives addressing the needs ofolder people and other age groups.

Transportation

Built
Environments
in communities, suchas affordable andaccessible transport, suitable housing, etc.

Quality Health Services

Opportunity
to Participate

at community level,
especially to vulnerable
populations.

in society and continue
to work and learn
throughout life.

A systematic review of age-friendly environment intervention studies
has found that: Six themes emerge from the literature focusing on age-friendly
Respect & Social
Inclusion

Civic Participationand Employment

Housing

Social Participation

environment interventions related to health and social outcomes of older people in acommunity-dwelling setting. Interventions, such as support programmes driven by older
people, improving access to digital technology, age-friendly transportation policy, areassociated with positive health-related outcomes.

06 Emerging
themes:Physical activity
Health care
Social interaction

Communication &Information

Community supportand health services

Built environment
TechnologyTransportation

Webinar participants indicatedhealthy ageing means good
physical and mental health,good social functioning andquality of life in older age.
Independence, dignity, selffulfillment, respect for people
with different functional capacity
and intergenerational solidarity
were also considered as vital tohealthy ageing.

DAY 2Webinar: Sharing knowledge tocreate age-friendly environments
Theme: What do we have to do?

Barriers
Low-level awareness ofhealthy ageing and conceptof age-friendly among older
people and local communities

Inadequate services
for older people

Safety risk andaccessibility issue in

Social isolationand lonelinessbuilt environment

among older people

Limited opportunities
to participate in society

Opportunities for Age-friendly Environments
Services,products and technology provided by for-profit and non-profit organizations

Policy support

Older people’s engagementfrom government.

in community initiatives.

Services,products andtechnology provided bySocial cohesion
and improved healthcompanies.

in communities.

Inspirational Stories on Creatingan Age-friendly Environment

China Stories
China adopted the national medium/long-term plan for
population ageing with vision of age-friendly society
by 2035 and established the National Committee on
Ageing to coordinate activities.

992

Age-friendly Communities
Government commitment at different levels is one of
the key factors that can contribute to age-friendly
approaches and interventions.

In 2021, it nominated 992 age-friendly communities with
better living environment, accessible transportation, careservices, participation and cultural life and use of ICT.

Japan Stories

Australia Stories
East Victoria Region’s (AUS) age-friendly initiatives identify
influential champions, instill a sense of urgency for changeand ensures adequate financial resources.

Create a Network

In Kanagawa Prefecture (JPN), municipal activities arecoordinated by local government, involving the participationof social welfare organizations, local residents’ associations
and senior citizen groups

Identify influential
champions

Instill a sense ofurgency to change

Includeintergenerational
purposeEnsuring adequate
financial resources

Developing evidence-based age-friendly
interventions and activities: WHO’s Urban
HEART (Urban Health Equity Assessment
and Response Tool
The Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) adapted the WHO’s Urban HEARTfor an older population. Local communities can use this tool to identify and target
disadvantaged population groups, and generate evidence-based solutions to improve
integrated care for those with greatest needs.

Initiating community activities
and interventions on mostpressing issues greater useof available data adequate
financial, human resources
communities can start withsmall scale and low-costprojects faced by older people,
such as community-based physicalexercise and shopping support in
Kanagawa prefecture, a working groupby older adults in East Victoria, andsenior citizen associations in China.

All case studies reiterated theimportance of adequate

financial, humanresources and networking

within and across communities.

Researchers advocated for greateruse of available data to identify
and target disadvantaged populationsin the community. This helps
communities to provide customized
services to older adults with greatest
needs. JAGES demonstrated thefeasibility and effectiveness of theevidence-based diagnosis framework
for communities (JAGES-Heart) inJapan and Myanmar. Community salons
were found to reduce risks of mortality
and functional capacity among olderpeople.

Experts advised that developing agefriendly cities and communities

can start with small scale andlow-cost projects in resource
limited settingDAY 3Webinar: Sharing knowledge tocreate age-friendly environments
Theme: How do we create an age-friendly
environment together?

Inspirational
stories on
creating an
age-friendly
environment
togetherPhilippines established National
Commission of Senior Citizens
in 2019 to coordinate activities bydifferent agencies and partners. It aims toshift focus from physical capacity to highcapacity. To date, it organized a series ofworkshops with stakeholders and open
dialogue with older citizens.

Breakout discussion:
From government/ministries’ perspective, how do weengage non-health sector stakeholders?

Viet Nam’s General Office for Population andFamily Planning is developing guidelines forcreating age-friendly environments andcriteria for assessing age-friendlinessof communities. The framework considers theneeds and capacities of older adults in Viet Nam andencourages multi-stakeholder collaboration.
Viet Nam plans to implement a pilot model andreplicates across the country.

Recommendationsfor Member States:

Establish national level multisectoral coordinating mechanism
Develop policies/ordinances/
frameworks to support multistakeholder collaboration

Provide financial resource

Support research/surveys toidentify the needs of older people

Set up a committee/ working
group/ steering group
to develop multisectoralcollaborations on creating agefriendly environments, andmeet regularly to plan,implement activities andmonitor the progress.

Hold conversations with older
people and/or senior citizenorganizations early on in theplanning phase.

Review policies to ensurethat the identified challenges
facing age-friendly cities andcommunities are taken into
account and addressed

Secure financial resourcesand experienced staff forage-friendly programs andinterventions at all levels(including cities
and communities)

Raise awareness ofage-friendly environments

Promote knowledge exchange
and sharing of good practices

Engage the private sector tocreate age-friendly environments