Aging is now included into the WHO work program. Thanks!
Ilia Stambler
Dear friends,
Following the previous extensive correspondence and the recent WHO Executive Board Meeting that was completed on January 27, I felt it was necessary to provide an update on the campaign that many longevity activists were conducting for the inclusion of aging health into the WHO work program.
Briefly: Congratulations, the longevity activists have won!
Thanks to the international advocacy campaign, WHO now has included a strong focus on “healthy aging” into the new WHO draft work program.
See the latest work program draft in English and all the 6 UN official languages (as of January 2018)
http://www.who.int/about/what-we-do/gpw-thirteen-consultation/en/
http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB142/B142_3-en.pdf?ua=1
See especially paragraphs 15, 16, 17, 37, including the WHO commitment to advance the Global Strategy and Action Plan (GSAP) on Ageing and Health (until 2020, including the strategic objective 5 for “improving measurement, monitoring and understanding of healthy ageing”) and to prepare for the Decade of Healthy Aging (2020-2030).
Perhaps the most significant for advocacy is that Paragraph 17 of the work program declares that “Ensuring healthy ageing is an urgent challenge in all countries” and Paragraph 15 declares the major public health goal “to live not just long but also healthy lives” and suggests the use of “healthy life expectancy” as the main measure of health care success. Such goals and measures for healthy longevity can be advocated and quoted also at the national and local level.
So thanks again to everybody who participated in the campaign to include aging health into the WHO work program for your contribution! Here the head of the WHO Ageing and Life Course division acknowledges the importance of this campaign for the change of the program, and quotes the article “Aging health and R&D for healthy longevity must be included into the WHO work program” as an example of the successful joint advocacy effort.
https://twitter.com/DrJohnBeard/status/938418218473082881
http://www.aginganddisease.org/article/0000/2152-5250/147696
Hopefully, this advocacy will continue, to ensure healthy longevity is not just planned, but actively advanced and implemented. If you organize or are involved in further longevity advocacy campaigns – either for specific topics (like the one for the WHO) or specific dates and occasions, as was practiced in the past – e.g. the Jeanne Calment day on February 21 (commemorating the longest-lived human), the Future Day on March 1 (particularly to celebrate emerging health technologies), The World Health Day on April 7, the Elie Metchnikoff Day on May 15 (commemorating the founder of gerontology), or the Longevity Day/Month in October – please share your plans and actions, so we could perhaps coordinate together and create a stronger impact!
Thankfully,
Ilia Stambler, PhD
Chief Science Officer. Vetek (Seniority) Association – the Senior Citizens Movement (Israel)
http://www.longevityisrael.org/
Outreach coordinator. International Society on Aging and Disease (ISOAD)
Coordinator. Longevity for All
http://www.longevityforall.org/
Dear friends and colleagues,
I wanted to bring to your attention an important and urgent issue for aging care and research.
It turns out that in the forthcoming work program of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the next 5 years – 2018-2023 – the issue of aging and aging-related ill health is excluded completely! This means that, within the next 5 years, according to this document, the World Health Organization is not obliged to do anything to care for the health of older persons or to improve their health, not to mention conduct any research and development to create new therapies and technologies for improving the health of the aged, or any kind of longevity research. The issues of aged health are not in the WHO work program! This is the essence of ageism in health care and health research!
http://www.who.int/about/gpw-thirteen-consultation/en/
Currently, the WHO conducts a public consultation about the draft Work Program. Please use the link below to participate in the consultation! Please explain to the World Health Organization that the issue of Aging is important, and the care and improvement of health of the aged, also through increasing biomedical R&D of aging, are important! The consultation fields are easy to fill in, and even a couple of sentences, with your affiliation, could help break the ageist wall! The consultation takes place until November 15. Please also spread the word in your circles. Thank you for your action!
http://www.who.int/about/gpw-thirteen-consultation/en/
In the words of Jane Barratt, Secretary General of the International Federation on Ageing (IFA) that brings this issue to the highlight of global public discussion: “We urge the WHO to rectify the glaring omission of population ageing and older people in the draft 13th General Programme of Work. It is a striking oversight that will diminish its credibility among all of us. Make your voice heard bit.”
Sincerely,
Ilia Stambler, PhD
On behalf of Vetek (Seniority) Association – the Senior Citizens Movement (Israel)
http://www.longevityisrael.org/
Longevity for All
--Ilia Stambler, PhD
Outreach Coordinator. International Society on Aging and Disease - ISOAD http://isoad.org
Chair. Israeli Longevity Alliance / CSO. Vetek (Seniority) Association – The Senior Citizens Movement (Israel) http://www.longevityisrael.org/
Coordinator. Longevity for All http://www.longevityforall.org
Author. Longevity History. A History of Life-Extensionism in the Twentieth Century ; Longevity Promotion: Multidisciplinary Perspectives http://longevityhistory.com
Email: ilia.s...@gmail.com
Tel: 972-3-961-4296 / 0522-283-578
Skype: iliastam
Rishon Lezion. Israel
Ilia Stambler, PhD
Outreach Coordinator. International Society on Aging and Disease - ISOAD http://isoad.org
Chair. Israeli Longevity Alliance / CSO. Vetek (Seniority) Association – The Senior Citizens Movement (Israel) http://www.longevityisrael.org/
Coordinator. Longevity for All http://www.longevityforall.org
Author. Longevity History. A History of Life-Extensionism in the Twentieth Century ; Longevity Promotion: Multidisciplinary Perspectives http://longevityhistory.com
Email: ilia.s...@gmail.com
Tel: 972-3-961-4296 / 0522-283-578
Skype: iliastam
Rishon Lezion. Israel