Side Event: Towards Age-Friendly Sustainable Cities and Communities

Background

Cities and communities across the UNECE region work to make their communities better places to grow old – by placing older people at the centre of the decision-making process and addressing several domains of action to create age-friendly environments. These include enhancing accessibility of built environment and services, opportunities for social participation, intergenerational exchange, and inclusion. The side event, co-organised by WHO and UNECE, showcased good practice of vertical collaboration between national and local levels in developing and sustaining age-friendly cities and communities. Speakers included representatives of national programmes/networks in the WHO Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities, as well as local champions. The event will introduce new WHO Guidance for strengthening or establishing such national programmes. Aligned with the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, 2021-2030, the event put a spotlight on the social dimension of sustainable development to "leave no-one behind" and highlight the importance of platforms to nurture partnerships, demonstrating the synergies between SDG 11 and 17.