Global: HelpAge International report
Elders still suffering unequally following Madrid Plan
Five years after United Nations member states signed the Madrid Plan of Action on Ageing [MIPAA], research from HelpAge International shows that older people’s experience of poverty and discrimination has not improved. Preliminary results from HelpAge International’s 10 country review on how far MIPAA is being implemented will be presented at the 45th session of the Commission for Social Development in New York.
The study reveals that older people are still disproportionately subject to chronic poverty, that malnutrition and respiratory diseases kill far more elderly people than children and that nine per cent of those aged 50 and over in Africa are blind because of limited access to healthcare. This is despite the fact that the MIPPA commits governments to halve old age poverty by 2015, in–line with the first Millennium Development Goal.
The findings from HelpAge International's report mirror those in the Secretary General’s report on major developments in the area of ageing, which recognises that progress to implement the MIPPA since 2002 has been slow and uneven. This report will also be presented at the upcoming session in New York.
For further information visit the HelpAge International website at: www.helpage.org
BACK TO GLOBAL NEWS ARCHIVE 2007
Handy guide to wellbeing series | One-worldmentalhealth.org
One-worldhealthblog | Communicatormentalhealth.org online and magazine UKhealthblog | EUhealthnews.eu [service starts soon] | EUhealthblog
Mind+body wellbeing | Government policy | Economics | Work and training | Education | Age | Families | Caregiving | Nutrition | Exercise | Housing | Poverty | Abuse | Human rights | Prisons | War | Transport
