Policy handbook – Supporting the WHO’s decade of healthy and inclusive urban ageing

The origins of the report are in discussions held a number of years ago by a small group of European cities, who were forming the Eurocities Urban Ageing Working Group. The aim of the partner cities was, and remains, the building of an effective pan-European platform that

  1. understands the dynamics of modern cities and the impact on ageing populations in the urban context,
  2. can develop effective and successful policy responses to urban ageing, with a particular focus on social and health inequalities and marginalised groups of older people,
  3. promotes the role of older people in designing, leading and implementing programmes of work, and
  4. brings together citizens, policy-makers, researchers and businesses to work together, rather than in the silos that limit progress.

So this report was envisaged as a tool to raise the profile of the ageing agenda with European institutions, city administrations, and NGOs and specifically from the social perspective of ageing. This report therefore combines concerns of conceptual approaches to ageing – principally the World Health Organization’s age-friendly city model – with practical and forward-looking examples of how cities are implementing change.

And delivering change is our number one priority.

A significant amount of work has gone into this report and I would like to thank Piera Petruzzi at ESPON and Erik van Ossenbruggen at ECORYS and the organisers of the excellent meetings and events, along with colleagues at the Eurocities Office and the Working Group leaders – Tom van Benthem from Amsterdam and Anne-Berit Rafoss from Oslo – who have steered this work.

Closer to home colleagues in the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, especially Jo Garsden, Mark Hammond and Maria Gonzalez, have played an invaluable role, as has Dave Thorley at Manchester City Council, Chris Phillipson and Tine Buffel at the University of Manchester and Stefan White at Manchester Metropolitan University.

I hope that this report is just one milestone in our ongoing work to create an age-friendly Europe and to maintain our collaborate approaches despite the national and international challenges that seem designed to push us apart.

Happy reading.

Paul McGarry

Greater Manchester Ageing Hub, lead stakeholder of ESPON ACPA Targeted Analysis

ESPON ACPA – Adapting European Cities to Population Ageing: Policy challenges and best practices

Documents

ESPON ACPA policy handbook_EN.pdf

  • Acrobat Document | 8.78MB