1st Edition
The United Nations Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing Global Perspectives
The United Nations Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) offers a bold new agenda for handling the issue of ageing in the 21st century. It focuses on three priority areas: older persons and development; advancing health and well-being into old age; and ensuring enabling and supportive environments. This book brings together global perspectives on the MIPAA and focusses on and assesses the success and failures of governments to implement its recommendations.
Despite its pivotal importance in international ageing policy, the MIPAA has been relatively neglected by academics in their writings and studies. This book mitigates this analytical and empirical cavity. Each chapter focuses on one specific geographical region and addresses five key themes: national ageing situation; twenty years of MIPAA; ensuring ageing with dignity; healthy and active ageing in a sustainable world; and priorities for the future. It presents an overall summary of the findings, future challenges and opportunities related to ageing, recommendations for future actions to be taken, and policy adjustments needed. The authors also present lessons that were learnt from managing the impact of COVID-19 on older people, together with an outlook on the most immediate priorities for the future so that the recommendations in the MIPAA are achieved in post-COVID-19 and sustainable ethical scenarios.
An important contribution towards the advancement of ageing policy, the book will be indispensable to students and researchers of gerontology, ageing, and health. It will also be of interest to policy makers, geriatricians, dementia care specialists, social policy makers responsible for ensuring active and healthy ageing, and all public sector departments which have specific responsibilities towards improving the quality of life of older adults.
List of tables
List of figures
Notes on contributors
Foreword by John Rowe & Toni Antonucci
Preface
PART I
HISTORICAL AND FORMATIVE INFLUENCES
Chapter 1: Introduction: The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing
Marvin Formosa & Mala Kapur Shankardass
Chapter 2: The journey to the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing
Alexandre Sidorenko
Chapter 3: The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing at 20: Assessing
progress over the years
Ann Pawliczko
PART II
INTERNATIONAL REVIEWS AND ASSESSMENTS
Chapter 4: The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing:
Continental and Western Europe twenty years later
Marvin Formosa
Chapter 5: Challenges and opportunities of Ageing in Eastern European Countries
Alexandre Sidorenko
Chapter 6: The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing in the Middle
East and North Africa: Successes and shortcomings
Abdulrazak Abyad & Sonia Ouali Hammami
Chapter 7: Ageing in Eastern and Central Africa in the two decades of the Madrid
International Plan of Action on Ageing: Implications for the future
Samuel M. Mwangi & Caroline M. Mutwiri
Chapter 8: The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing: From signpost towards implementation in South(ern) Africa
Jaco Hoffman & Manare Naume Maloba
Chapter 9: Population ageing in Central Asia: Assessing the progress towards achieving the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing recommendations
Marta Mustafina
Chapter 10: The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing: Assessing progress in Eastern Asia
Du Peng
Chapter 11: Ageing and health in Southeast Asia: Challenges for policy and practice
Jacqueline W. M. Wong
Chapter 12: The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing and South Asia:
Assessing the progress
Mala Kapur Shankardass
Chapter 13: Ageing well in Australasia and Oceania: A region of extremes
David Stevens & Andrew Larpent, with support from Phil Saunders
Chapter 14: Accomplishments and challenges of two North American countries to
implement the recommendations of the Madrid International Plan of
Action on Ageing
Pamela B. Teaster, Kathryn Ratliff, E. Carlisle Shealy & Vijeth Iyengar
Chapter 15: Ageing and health in Central America and the Caribbean: Challenges of
design and implementation of recommendations in an unequal and heterogeneous context
Luis Miguel Gutiérrez-Robledo, Carmen García-Peña, Rosa Estela García-Chanes, Emely Max-Monroy, & Mariana López-Ortega
Chapter 16: Following up on the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing:
The South American experience
José R. Jauregui
PART III
LINKING THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Chapter 17: Epilogue: Two decades of Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing: Its meaning in the global context and ways forward
Mala Kapur Shankardass & Marvin Formosa
Index
Biography
Marvin Formosa is an Associate Professor in gerontology at the Department of Gerontology and Dementia Studies, University of Malta. He holds the posts of Chairperson of the National Commission for Active Ageing (Malta), Rector’s Delegate for the University of the Third Age (Malta), and Director of the International Institute on Ageing (United Nations Malta). He has published widely in the field of ageing studies, and his most recent publications include The University of Third Age and Active Ageing (2019) and Ageing and COVID-19: Making sense of a disruptive world (Łuszczyńska & Formosa, 2021). Formosa is Malta’s Country Team Leader for the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE).
Mala Kapur Shankardass is an academician, researcher, writer and an activist with specialisation in sociology, health social sciences and gerontology. She has recently retired as Professor from University of Delhi, India. She has prestigious assignments to her credit with the United Nations and other international organisations, and has been affiliated with these as an Expert/Consultant and with honorary positions. She is Member of different Committees constituted by a varied Ministries and institutions of Government of India. She has published books, chapters with reputable publishers and has many articles in journals, magazines and newspapers, and is recipient of fellowships and awards for her work on ageing issues.
"Formosa and Shankardass have done ageing scholars a superb service by commemorating the 20th anniversary of the MIPAA with this timely volume. Despite the variable demographic structures observed across the globe, Formosa and Shankardass succeeded in bringing to the forefront the progress and challenges associated with developing ageing policies worldwide."
Shereen Hussein, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
"It is challenging to cover every world’s region, let alone successfully convince busy renowned experts to contribute and critically assess not only their country but also their neighbours. Nevertheless, Formosa and Shankardass’ book has successfully reviewed the implementation extent of the MIPAA globally on its 20th Anniversary. A monumental achievement!"
Gerald C H Koh, National University of Singapore
"This book provides important reflections on 20 years of MIPAA. While some countries have made more important strides than others in improving the lives of older persons, the COVID pandemic exposed the urgent need for a United Nations Convention to promote and protect human rights in old age and accountability by all governments."
Silvia Perel-Levin, Chair, Subcommittee on the Human Rights of Older Persons, Geneva NGO Committee on Ageing
