WHO summary of Baseline report for UN Decade of Healthy Ageing is now available in all official UN languages

The UN Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021-2030 is a global collaboration, that brings together governments, civil society, international agencies, professionals, academia, the media, and the private sector to improve the lives of older people, their families, and the communities in which they live. To support all stakeholders around the world to drive forward their efforts towards the achievement of healthy ageing, WHO is launching translations of the Decade of healthy ageing: baseline report – summary in all official UN languages.

The data and evidence presented in the Baseline report, published at the end of 2020, is for use by Member States, academia, civil society, UN partners and others to support evidence-based decision making on the policies, programmes and services needed to support all people, in particular older persons, to live long and healthy lives.

The Baseline report brings together data available for measuring healthy ageing, defined by WHO as “the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables well-being in older age.” Optimizing “functional ability” is the goal of the Decade of Healthy Ageing, which began in 2021 and addresses five interrelated abilities that all older people should enjoy:  the ability to meet basic needs; to continue to learn and make decisions; to be mobile; to build and maintain relationships; and to contribute to society. The report also looks at people’s capacities (including physical and mental) and the environments (spanning attitudes, services, natural and built) in which people live, which contribute to functional ability.

The summary version of the baseline report, now available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, addresses five issues:

1. Introduces healthy ageing, the Decade’s actions and enablers, and a pathway to accelerate impact by 2030;
2. Where are we in 2020? The report provides a first-time baseline for healthy ageing worldwide;
3. What improvements could we expect by 2030? It documents progress and scenarios for improvement;
4. How can we accelerate impact on the lives of older people? It shows how older people and stakeholders together can optimise functional ability;
5. The next steps including opportunities to boost collaboration and impact by 2023, the next reporting period.