Second Regional Intergobernmental Conference on Ageing

The objective of the Conference will be to evaluate progress in the implementation of the Regional Strategy for the Implementation in Latin America and the Caribbean of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing. It will also identify challenges and priorities for action over the next five years.

The frame of reference for the issues to be dealt with during the Conference includes the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing and the regional strategy for its implementation in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the agreements reached in relation to the situation of older persons, embodied in the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 2004) and the Beijing Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995).

The overall theme of the first global cycle of review and appraisal of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing is "Addressing the challenges and opportunities of ageing". The Conference will address this theme in line with the principles of a "society for all ages" and a rights-based social protection.

The proceedings of the Conference will be organized in four thematic meetings, as follows:

Priority area I: older persons and development

Priority area II: promotion of health and well-being into old age

Priority area III: creation of enabling and supportive environments

Implementation and monitoring of the Regional Strategy for the Implementation in Latin America and the Caribbean of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing.

The countries represented at the meeting are expected to agree on the region's contribution to be presented at the forty-sixth session of the Commission for Social Development in February 2008 and at the thirty-second session of ECLAC (Santo Domingo, 2008). The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will provide support to the Conference.