The Standing Working Group on Ageing (SWGA) is an intergovernmental body which is subsidiary to the Executive Committee of UNECE. Its membership consists of national focal points on ageing representing the member States of the UNECE region. Representatives of NGOs, academia, and international organizations participate as observers. The Standing Working Group on Ageing meets annually in November in Geneva, where it reviews the achievements and developments of the past year and sets the agenda of work for the year to come.
- Terms of reference of the Standing Working Group on Ageing
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The Standing Working Group on Ageing supports the realization of the policy principles set out in the 2002 Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) and its Regional Implementation Strategy (RIS), and the subsequent Ministerial Declarations on Ageing among the UNECE member States.
It strives for synergies in the activities linked to the implementation and monitoring of MIPAA/RIS and those addressing the regional/national follow-up on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other population-related international frameworks such as the ICPD Programme of Action and its follow up beyond 2014 and the WHO Global Strategy on Ageing and Health and the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021-2030).
The Standing Working Group:
- promotes international cooperation, exchange of experience and policy discussion on ageing and intergenerational relations, taking into account the situation and different needs of individual countries;
- develops guidelines and policy recommendations for governments on population ageing issues;
- supports MIPAA/RIS monitoring activities and coordinates the five-year review and appraisal exercises of MIPAA/RIS implementation;
- provides demand-driven policy advisory services and other capacity-building activities;
- raises awareness of population ageing and its implications throughout the UNECE region;
- creates synergies with related policy agendas and collaboration within and outside UNECE.
Terms of reference
- Programme of work of the Standing Working Group on Ageing 2023-2027
- English French Russian
- Bureau of the Standing Working Group on Ageing
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Chairperson:
Mr. Alfredo FERRANTE (Italy)
Vice-Chairperson:
Ms. Abigail CHANTLER (Ireland)
Mr. Nuno MARQUES (Portugal)
Bureau Members:
Ms. Eva GEIER (Austria)
Ms. Ketevan GOGINASHVILI (Georgia)
Mr. Dragomir KNEZEVIC (Serbia)
Mr. Manuel MONTERO REY (Spain)
Ms. Burcu AYHAN EKENCI (Türkiye)
Observers:
Ms. Heidrun MOLLENKOPF (Civil Society)
Mr. Kai LEICHSENRING (Research/Academia)
- National Focal Points on Ageing
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The membership of SWGA consists of national focal points on ageing (NFPAs) representing the member States of the UNECE region. Terms of reference for NFPAs were adopted by SWGA at its seventeenth meeting in November 2024.
Terms of reference for National Focal Points on Ageing
The information note for National Focal Points on Ageing describes the main activities of SWGA and the modalities of its work. It also highlights the opportunities available to member States for regional dialogue, cooperation, and capacity-building on ageing.
- Meetings of the Standing Working Group on Ageing
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Seventeenth meeting, 20-22 November 2024
Sixteenth meeting, 20-22 November 2023
Fifteenth meeting, 21-22 November 2022
Fourteenth meeting, 22-23 November 2021
Thirteenth meeting, 19-20 November 2020
Twelfth meeting, 18-19 November 2019
Eleventh meeting, 19-20 November 2018
Tenth meeting, 23-24 November 2017
Nineth meeting, 21-22 November 2016
Eighth meeting, 19-20 November 2015
Seventh meeting, 20-21 November 2014
Sixth meeting, 25-26 November 2013
Fifth meeting, 22-23 November 2012
Fourth meeting, 21-22 November 2011
Third meeting, 22-23 November 2010
- Task forces under the Standing Work Group on Ageing
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Task force on updating the MIPAA Regional Implementation Strategy (RIS)
The task force on updating RIS was established in 2023 to respond to a request from member States at the 2022 UNECE Ministerial Conference on Ageing that the SWGA update the RIS to adapt ageing-related policy responses to economic, social, and digital transformations and emerging challenges in the region. The primary objective of the task force is to draft a new RIS, to be submitted to the SWGA at its 18th meeting in November 2026. The task force is chaired by Germany and is composed of member State representatives and representatives of civil society and the scientific research community.
National focal points on ageing are asked to support the work of the task force by organizing—together with relevant government agencies and civil society organizations—national stakeholder engagement exercises on future ageing policy priorities between June 2024 and June 2025. Additional information is provided in the guidance note below.
Guidance for national stakeholder engagement exercises
Task force on quantitative monitoring of MIPAA/RIS
The task force on quantitative monitoring of MIPAA/RIS RIS was established in 2024 with the objective of guiding the development of a framework of quantitative indicators to monitor the implementation of MIPAA/RIS at the national and regional levels. The framework will be developed in parallel to the revised RIS and submitted to SWGA alongside the new RIS in November 2026. The task force will also contribute to an in-depth review on ageing-related statistics being carried out by the Conference of European Statisticians (CES) during 2024-2025. The task force is chaired by Portugal. It will bring together data producers and data users from Government, academia, and civil society to identify available data and relevant indicators for monitoring the impacts of population ageing in the UNECE region.