Opinion:
What the United Nations Should Do About our Ageing World

‘The United Nations (is) Still Rather Timid’
By Dirk Jarré

The United Nations General Assembly resolution, which endorsed the idea of a revision of the International Plan of Action on Ageing, adopted in 1982 in Vienna, not only comprised the decision to hold the Second World Assembly on Ageing in April 2002 in Madrid, Spain, but also stipulated that the revision and ensuing implementation processes should give particular attention to “appropriate forms of public/private partnership, including with non-governmental organizations, at all levels, for building societies for all ages”.

It is, in fact, a common view that NGOs strongly reflect living conditions, concerns, needs and expectations of people in our societies. On the other hand, it is evident that they play a key role in addressing societal problems and improving living conditions in such a way that all people can feel respected, can fully enjoy their rights and participate as citizens in the development of the community. Thus, NGOs are considered as critical opposite numbers, as well as natural partners of Government, in terms of policy orientation and action. A plan of action on ageing, with the objective of building a society for all ages, is inconceivable without the close involvement of civil society organizations and in particular NGOs, be they membership associations of older persons or organizations defending their rights, providing services for them or working for the well-being of society at large.

The United Nations and particularly the Member States are still rather timid, to put it mildly, in considering NGOs as important partners in the process of revision of the International Plan of Action, by giving them an adequate position and say in the debates and negotiations. They, therefore, miss the chance to hear more directly the voice of the citizen through civil society organizations, which express the concerns, hopes, fears and capacities of people.

Photo/Horst Rutsch

But even if the United Nations is not yet ready at the global level to fully live up to citizens’ expectations through new ways and means of modern transparent and participatory governance, there is hope and encouraging development at the regional level. The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations, covering more or less the whole Northern hemisphere with some 55 Member States, including Canada and the United States, has decided to be the first UN Commission to work on a regional implementation strategy for the International Plan of Action on Ageing. And the UNECE has always taken very seriously the recommendation “to give particular attention to appropriate forms of public/private partnership, including with non-governmental organizations, at all levels, for building societies for all ages”. Recognizing this, the UNECE has invited NGO representatives to participate in a significant way in all stages of the preparation process and has offered them exemplary conditions of representation.

NGOs have warmly welcomed these arrangements, which will allow them to make significant contributions to the Regional Implementation Strategy. To do so, they have organized themselves accordingly by putting into place appropriate mechanisms of internal consultation, the final output of which will lead to a consolidated position paper to be introduced into the governmental negotiations.

But this will not be the end of the process. First of all, NGOs obviously will normally be closely associated to or be partners in the concrete national and local implementation activities to make the Plan of Action become a reality for the people and society at large. In addition to playing an important role in the various areas of their specific responsibilities, NGOs will, in particular, feel that it is their task to monitor and evaluate government performances and failures in policies or action, and they will, consequently, create public awareness of what has still to be done.

Finally, it is also important that NGOs be partners in the envisaged further process of the promotion of the Regional Implementation Strategy through regional cooperation. Their positions have to be an integral part of the negotiations on the objectives, content and forms of the monitoring and evaluation at the regional level.

The NGO contributions, in terms of provision of information and findings, will be indispensable; thus, they have to be closely involved in the definition of indicators, as well as in the reporting and assessment processes, to monitor achievements or failures not only at the national but also at the regional level. NGOs in the UNECE region are fully aware of their key role and various responsibilities in regard to the revised International Plan of Action on Ageing, and in particular the Regional Implementation Strategy, and they are committed to giving their best to promote the long-term success of both.

The United Nations as a whole should recognize this forward-looking arrangement of cooperation with NGOs as an important “best practice” example to be copied, adapted and implemented in other regions, as well as at the global level, as part of the concept of the new governance strategy, as this would be in their own best interest.


Links:
Second World Assembly on Ageing
UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)

Dirk Jarré is head of the international department of the German Association for Public and Private Welfare and the Secretary General of the German National Committee of the International Council on Social Welfare.

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