Ten years since the adoption of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) – the framework set by the international community in 2002 as a blueprint for national responses to population ageing – the first ever Africa-wide conference on ageing was held on 17-20 October in Cape Town.
This historic meeting was convened by the Africa Region of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG) in partnership with the African Research on Ageing Network (AFRAN), Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, the South African Gerontological Association (SAGA) and the South African Geriatrics Society (SAGS) and organized locally by the Institute of Ageing in Africa at the University of Cape Town (IAA). It not only marked the 10 years since African governments adopted the MIPAA but also a parallel African Union Framework and Plan of Action on Ageing.
The ‘Africa Ageing: Beyond Madrid + 10’ conference bought together close to 400 scholars, civil society representatives, policy makers, practitioners and private sector role players from 21 countries across Africa and a further 20 from beyond.
The programme (http://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/files/IAGG_Prog_Abstract_book_FA_1.PDF) / presentations (http://iagg.cmc-uct.co.za/presentations/) provided a unique platform for knowledge transfer and cutting-edge debate on the realities of growing old in Africa, and for setting future directions for action on ageing in the continent. Especially timely when considering that although still the youngest of all world regions, Africa will see a massive, 13-fold growth in the absolute size of its older population - from 56 million today to 716 million by the end of the century. This is a sharper rise than for any other world region or any younger age group.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
> Dowload the Abstracts book (pdf)
> View conference presentations
