International Day of Older Persons

  The 2025 United Nations International Day of Older Persons will serve as a platform for older persons to share aspirations, advocate for their well-being, and call for the full enjoyment of their human rights. This year’s commemoration focuses on recognizing and supporting the transformative role that older persons play in driving action at both local and global levels, drawing on their expertise in health equity, financial well-being, community resilience, and human rights advocacy. The Political Declaration and the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA), adopted at the Second World Assembly on Ageing in 2002, remain the cornerstone of international efforts to promote the well-being and human rights of older persons. The Declaration articulates the global commitment to building a society for all ages, while MIPAA translates that vision into action through its three priority directions: older persons and development; advancing health and well-being into old age; an...

 Let's Raise awareness of the evolving demographic landscape and the rights of older persons by highlighting the significant growth of the global population aged 60 and over, particularly in developing regions. This awareness is essential to recognizing older persons as key contributors to economic and social development and to support the design of innovative policy solutions that respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by rapid population ageing, ensuring that no one is left behind.

 Let's Promote inclusive social and economic opportunities for older persons by showcasing initiatives that enable their full participation in society. Highlighting these initiatives helps to focus efforts on creating equitable pathways for older persons to engage in community life, access education and employment, and benefit from sustainable social protection systems that uphold their dignity, rights, and aspirations.

Let's advance discussions on the human rights of older persons and the elimination of discrimination by drawing on experiences from diverse regions. These reflections should highlight how age-related discrimination may be compounded by other forms of inequality, and emphasize the need to strengthen legal frameworks and accountability mechanisms that protect the rights of older persons in all aspects of life.

 Let's encourage multi-stakeholder collaboration to foster supportive environments for older persons, by highlighting the roles of families, communities, and institutions. Such collaboration, bringing together Governments, civil society, the private sector, and older persons themselves, is essential to building age-inclusive societies, with a focus on intergenerational solidarity and community-based approaches that enhance resilience and empower older persons to lead fulfilling lives.

🔹Leaders; 🔹Caretakers; 🔹Custodians of tradition… and so much more. On Wednesday’s International Day of Older Persons, we celebrate our older generation's contributions to society. "All communities and ages benefit from the wisdom of older persons. They have much to teach about navigating uncertainty, resolving conflict and building solidarity across generations,” says #UnitedNations Secretary-General @antonioguterres . “Let’s build a world where all people – of every age – can live with respect, security and opportunity."

  Older persons are often living at the margins, disproportionately experiencing poverty, poor health and the consequences of climate change and other shocks. The negative effects caused by ageism means the rights of older persons are often unrecognised, unfulfilled, and violated. These conditions and issues are significantly worsened in conflict and humanitarian contexts. But older persons are refusing to be left behind. When recognised as full partners in localizationof SDGs , they are drawing on their insights and experiences to inform policies and programmes to address the daily issues they face and deliver more equitable outcomes for their families, communities and societies. SDG 3 : Transforming systems to deliver good health and wellbeing for all ages . Many older persons face prohibitive health costs, barriers in accessing health, care and support services, and face the greatest burden of the failure to adequately address non-communicable diseases. Health systems are fallin...

Watch Building a Resilient Future: International Responses to an Aging World! Meetings & Events

 Governments should work with older persons to deliver the SDGs by including them in national and sub-national SDG strategies and budgets, alongside delivering commitments made in the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing and activities related to the ongoing UN Decade of Healthy Ageing. Local and regional governments (LRGs) are uniquely positioned to enable the meaningful participation of older persons as partners in achieving the SDGs. As the sphere of government closest to people’s daily lives, LRGs are responsible for delivering many of the public services that most directly affect older persons—such as health, care, social protection, transport, housing and disaster response. Their proximity to communities enables more inclusive, participatory and age responsive governance. Recognising and equipping LRGs as key actors in engaging older persons ensures that SDG implementation is not only rights-based but rooted in real-life experience and co-creation at the local level ...

   The 2025 United Nations International Day of Older Persons aims to elevate the voices of older persons as experts, advocates, and change-makers, ensuring their perspectives remain central to policies, programmes, and legislation at the national, regional, and international levels across all sectors. Co-organized by the Permanent Mission of Argentina, the NGO Committee on Ageing and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). Related Documents:  Event Site &  Concept Note . Watch 35th UN International Day of Older Persons Celebration! High-level Events

  By engaging with over 360 Older Citizen Monitoring Groups (OCMGs) , health system planners in Kenya and Mozambique embraced the voice, participation and leadership of older persons . This resulted in local health systems that are more inclusive, responsive and accountable to the needs of older persons . Formal and informal health care and support systems were better coordinated, health workers capacity in providing care for older persons was strengthened, and systems and policies became more responsive to patients with chronic diseases and disabilities. (HelpAge, 2025)

  The Malawi Network of Older PersonsOrganisations (MANEPO) led consultations and data gathering with older persons and others including youth and persons with disabilities. This highlighted bottlenecks and failures in local service delivery such as long waiting times and ineffective complaint mechanisms. By demanding to be counted and heard, older persons brought about improvements to service delivery that benefited everyone . Poor and incomplete data means older persons are often invisible in both statistical frameworks, national SDG indicators and consequently in policy making. The TitchfieldCity Group on Ageing-related statistics and Age-disaggregated Data was created by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) in March 2018 to contribute to establishing international standards and methods for the compilation of statistics and data on the major dimensions of ageing and age-disaggregated data across the life cycle and offers key recommendations for addressing these ...

The Coalition of Services of the Elderly (COSE) and the Demographic Research and Development Foundation in the Philippines found that national data on older persons and their income in later life was insufficient. By improving existing data sets , undertaking more detailed analysis and disaggregating data by age, gender, disability and location, they highlighted how more than 70% of older persons did not receive a contributory pension and that most could not (and should not have to) depend on their adult children as their main source of support. Their advocacy and engagement led to changes in the national pension system that resulted in an additional 200,000 people becoming eligible in the  Social pensions programme in 2018. 

  10 women-led CSOs and 10 volunteer groups consisting primarily of older women worked with HelpAge Moldova on initiatives preventing violence against older women . This included media campaigns, educational materials, promoting intergenerational solidarity and providing referrals to specialised multidisciplinary services for older survivors of violence or at-risk groups. ( HelpAge , 2025)

In India’s Thar desert, Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti (GRAVIS) has been working with girls, women and older women to strengthen their knowledge and political influence around the climate crisis.  In Chile, older persons working with the National Servicefor Older People (SENAMA) have become ‘environmental ambassadors’ in recognition of the fact that care of the environment is an intergenerational responsibility . µ In rural Bolivia, community organisation Sumaj Punchay works with older persons to build on their historical knowledge of local water sources and soil recovery to increase yields and diversify crops.  Across the world, older persons are using their knowledge and passion to take action and build a sustainable future for their communities . ( HelpAge , 2025)