Mainstreaming Ageing : Indicators to Monitor Sustainable Progress and Policies

This book offers strategies aimed at assisting and monitoring the implementation of the UN''s Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing. Contributions from international experts aim at assisting governments in mainstreaming ageing in their policies and in monitoring this process. The contributors provide an overview of the current situation with respect to population ageing and its consequences and they provide projections for the future. Topics addressed include demography, income and wealth, labour market participation, social protection and financial stability. Geographical converage is the UNECE Member States which include the EU, North American countries as well as countries of the former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia.

The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA), adopted at the Second World Assembly on Ageing, is the first international agreement that specifically recognises the potential of older people to contribute to the development of their societies. In monitoring its implementation two key approaches are evident: a qualitative bottom-up participatory approach and an approach that uses quantitative indicators to monitor sustainable progress and policies. With the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, playing a pivotal role in the monitoring of the implementation process, one of its key tasks has been to develop a list of ''indicators of achievement''. This book contains extended and revised versions of policy briefs and background papers that support the implementation monitoring process. The analyses included in these chapters make concrete suggestions towards quantitative indicators, with the aim of assisting national governments in mainstreaming ageing in their policies. The contributors provide an overview of the current situation with respect to population ageing and its consequences and also provide projections for the future. The book also includes the final list of quantitative indicators that arose out of consultations with international experts, related to the four main topics addressed: demography, income and wealth, labour market participation, and social protection and financial sustainability.