Committed To Becoming More Age-Friendly
Government of New Zealand New Zealand
The Office for Seniors provides information to the public, the Government and other stakeholders about the issues and concerns of older people. We support the Minister for Seniors’ advocacy across key government portfolios, work with other central government agencies, local government and community organisations.
We want a country where older people lead valued, connected and fulfilling lives, as described in the national strategy for our ageing population, Better Later Life – He Oranga Kaumātua 2019 -2024 and the first Action Plan. We will work with communities to develop resources and processes that reflect New Zealand’s bi-cultural status.
New Zealand’s involvement with the Age friendly Cities and Communities movement began with Tauranga City Council’s launch of its Age friendly City Strategy in 2012. In 2018 Hamilton became the first New Zealand city and 600th affiliate to the Global Network – since then Kapiti, New Plymouth, Hamilton, Gore, Nelson, Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland have joined the Global Network. Several more communities have indicated their intention to join.
We are building a national Age Friendly Aotearoa New Zealand Network to support cities and communities to become more age friendly, holding regular meetings to disseminate information, share best practice and learn from academics and experts on age friendly subjects. Over 40% of our city and district councils have joined representing an even larger proportion of the population of New Zealand.
The Office has established relationships with academics working on age friendly related research both in New Zealand and overseas and has contracted research to be undertaken where there is an identified gap.
The Office has led pilots of age friendly related projects that relate to the priorities in the Better Later Life Action Plan to progress learning on options and best practice in the areas of employment, housing, elder abuse and digital inclusion.
See more about our work Office for Seniors | Te Tari Kaumātua. Read about our progress in our annual update reports:
2022/2023
Age friendly Aotearoa New Zealand WHO Annual Update Report 2023
Age friendly Aotearoa New Zealand WHO Annual Update Summary 2023
2021/2022
Age friendly Aotearoa New Zealand WHO Annual Update Report 2022
Age friendly Aotearoa New Zealand WHO Annual Update Summary 2022
2020/2021
Age friendly Aotearoa New Zealand WHO Annual Update Report 2021
2019/2020