Both meetings are sponsored by the Pan American Organization and the World Health Organization and will address areas of work proposed for the Decade of Healthy Aging 2021-2030, according to organizers.
The program includes ensuring that communities strengthen the capabilities of older people by designing strategies that support healthy aging and engage diverse sectors and stakeholders.
Such measures are considered a tool for implementing age-friendly environments in the WHO global network of age-friendly cities and communities.
They explain that the network has over 1,500 active members and more than half of them belong to the Americas region.
In particular, there are several countries in the region that have experienced exponential growth in recent years, including Mexico, host of this second edition, which precedes that of Costa Rica last year.
This congress represents an opportunity and a challenge for the further development of the program and it is essential that the cities and municipalities that are members of the network strengthen their efforts on kindness through sustainable actions based on intersectorality, emphasized the organizers .
For this reason, it was proposed that they be organized by the governments of Jalisco and Guadalajara, the Healthy Aging Program of the PAHO Regional Office and the Age-Friendly Environments Program of the WHO in collaboration with AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) and Pan-Canadian Age-Friendly Communities Initiative.
The main objective of the Mexican edition is to strengthen the network in the Americas region through the exchange of knowledge between the different actors that promote friendly environments for the elderly and by presenting opportunities that can strengthen the work in the global network.
The event takes place as part of the Decade of Healthy Aging in America (2021-2030), where research shows the population is aging faster than anywhere else in the world and aging is predicted to accelerate.
One of the main impacts of this drastic demographic change is that many older people lack access to the basic resources they need to live with dignity, and others face numerous obstacles to fully participating in social life. That is one of the topics of the meeting.
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