Women and Ageing (2004, No. 2)

The 28th Conference resolves to urge NFAs to:

1. promote increased awareness among their members and governments of the fact that the majority of older people are female and, therefore, the concerns of older women need attention;
2. promote research on all relevant aspects regarding the situation of older women in order to confront the myth of “older and ageing women” being “fragile, helpless and dependent”;
3. urge their governments to compile official statistics disaggregated according to age and gender;
4. promote increased awareness among their members and governments of the importance of gender sensitive measures for elderly people covering issues of finance, housing, health, supportive services and mental stimulation;
5. ensure that the mainstreaming approach explicitly includes the perspective of older women as a specific target group in government reports and other government publications, in order to be able to outline policy and legal measures aimed at improving their situation; and,
6. promote involvement of older women in local, regional, and national social policy development and initiatives.

Plan of Action

NFAs to urge their respective governments to implement the recommendations made by the UN Second World Assembly on Ageing, Madrid 2002.