Age-friendly Environments Knowledge and Action Hub for Social Connection
Social connection is built and strengthened where people live – and social connection is at the heart of the health and well-being of individuals, families, communities, and societies. This Age-friendly Environments Knowledge and Action Hub (AFE K&A Hub) helps cities and communities in the WHO Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities (GNAFCC) and beyond harness the power of social connection to make our places and spaces better places to grow, live, work, play, and age.
Hosted by the GNAFCC Secretariat with technical input from the WHO Social Connection team, the hub translates evidence and recommendations from the WHO Commission on Social Connection and related WHO work on healthy ageing and age-friendly environments into practical terms for local action. It also gathers what GNAFCC members and Affiliates are learning in practice, so that knowledge can move between evidence and implementation.
Aims and objectives
The Hub works to:
1. Make evidence on social connection usable for cities and communities of different sizes, contexts and resource levels;
2. Connect GNAFCC members and Affiliates with researchers, WHO technical teams and others working on social connection, so knowledge and experience can flow both ways; and
3. Support age-friendly programmes, and cities and communities more broadly, to develop evidence-informed approaches to social connection for people of all ages.
The hub responds to a practical gap. Community-level action is central to strengthening social connection, but local programmes often need support to translate evidence and recommendations into concrete age-friendly actions. The traditional evidence base on community-level interventions to address social isolation and loneliness is also still in its early stages, yet a significant knowledge base on such interventions already exists within cities and communities – but this is not yet very well utilised. The hub works in both directions: drawing on the practice-based knowledge of GNAFCC members and Affiliates, and returning translated, actionable guidance to the network.
Updates
June 2026: The hub's first practical living guide, Strengthening social connection through age-friendly cities and communities, is now available for feedback and was launched during a webinar on 25 June 2026.
The guide will be updated in response to feedback, shared learning and additional evidence.
K&A Dialogues
Interactive webinars and sessions that build exchange across the network. Themes may include community-level action, cross-sector approaches, measuring connection locally, and turning evidence into practice. Dialogues can feed expert commentaries, good practices for the GNAFCC Global Database of Age-friendly Practices, and future guidance products.
K&A Guidance Series
Concise, practical guidance that translates evidence and recommendations on social connection for age-friendly programmes. The first product is a practical living guide on social connection and age-friendly cities and communities, with the first version now available for feedback:
> Practical living guide: Strengthening social connection through age-friendly cities and communities
Sharing and learning from practice
A standing channel to gather, synthesize and return what cities and communities are doing, including calls for age-friendly practices on social connection for the GNAFCC Global Database, so that practice and evidence inform each other.
Members
The hub is guided by a core group, which includes the Older People's Commissioner for Wales and its Office (UK), the City of Geneva (Switzerland), and the City of Seoul (Republic of Korea). It brings together GNAFCC member cities and communities, research expertise on community-level social connection, and WHO technical teams for social connection and age-friendly environments.
Webinars
An Age-friendly Conversation and Connection Conversation on social connection in cities and communities, featuring WHO Commissioners on Social Connection from Japan and Chile, and perspectives from Wales, Geneva, and the research community. Recording to follow.