Hagestad's speech was delivered at the United Nations New York headquarters as part of an all-day program organized by the NGO Committee on Aging in collaboration with the U.N. Programme on Ageing and the U.N. Department of Public Information. Hagestad is an internationally recognized authority on the study of human life course and inter-generational relations. Hagestad discussed the need to prepare people for a meaningful 80 years of life and the importance of creating a society which helps us to make the most of life at whatever age we are. She pointed to the challenge of fighting age segregation in many industrialized and urbanized societies.
Age segregation makes contact and knowledge difficult.
These words include care, compassion, choice, competence, continuity and contribution. As part of an international panel of experts charged with developing a research agenda on aging and related topics by the end of the Inter-national Year, Hagestad hopes to help come up with some solutions.