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One of the most exciting benefits of being part of the WHO Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities (GNAFCC) is the opportunity to share what you know and learn from others.

Shaped by diverse regional, national, and local contexts, the Global Network offers a rich source of unique experiences and lessons learned that showcases countless possibilities in how we can create better places and spaces in which to grow older.

In this newsletter issue, we’re putting the spotlight on the Global Network’s power in both creating new knowledge about age-friendliness and putting knowledge into practice to foster healthy ageing. And as the Global Network continues to expand, this strength in making and using knowledge will keep growing, too.

So read on to take a peek at what the Global Network has been up to and get inspired! Don’t forget to read to the end to learn more about how we’re creating a new mechanism to better harness the Global Network’s strengths in making and using knowledge for impact.

GNAFCC Secretariat

Member in Focus: Kochi, India

Age-friendly Practice in Focus: Las Nieves Multiservice Community Centre

The Age-friendly Practice in Focus for this quarter is the ‘Las Nieves Multiservice Community Centre’ in the municipality of Campoo de Yuso, located in Cantabria, Spain. 

Campoo de Yuso has 660 residents and is a rural community. 40% of the community is above the age of 60, making age-friendly initiatives crucial to ensure no one is left behind. The Las Nieves Multiservice Community Centre works to support older people by offering activities that promote healthy ageing, combat social isolation and loneliness, and strengthen citizen empowerment for cooperation in the community.

As the world continues to experience rapid urbanization, it’s important to remember that rural and remote communities can also benefit significantly from becoming more age-friendly. The Spanish Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities recognizes this and works to make initiatives like the Las Nieves Community Centre visible – including through the Global Network.

Affiliates' Space

Welcome to our newest Global Network Affiliates – the Emirate of Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) and the Government of Jalisco (Mexico)!

Age-friendly cities and communities at the 77th World Health Assembly

The first French edition of the Age-friendly Environments ECHO (AFE-ECHO) Programme a success

New publications on the work of the Francophone Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities

The Francophone Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities (RFVAA) recently released two major publications, full of new insights and experiences from French-speaking cities and communities all over the world working to become more age-friendly:

1. The Age-Friendly Barometer 2024 "What Older People Want": highlighting the aspirations expressed by French-speaking older people living in cities and communities part of the RFVAA and the Global Network

2. A special supplement of the "Gazette des communes": highlighting concrete actions made by French-speaking age-friendly cities, and how they contribute to the growth and development of the global age-friendly movement.

IMSERSO publishes new guide on how to evaluate the process of becoming more age-friendly

IMSERSO, a Global Network Affiliate at the national level in Spain, published a new guide on how to evaluate the process of becoming age-friendly, as defined by the WHO age-friendly framework.

The new guide addresses basic questions about evaluation: why, what, how, and who to involve. The guide also covers common challenges faced in the evaluation of social policies, particularly at the local level.

The guide is available in Spanish.

Kanagawa Prefecture shares new approaches for fostering healthy ageing

Global Network Affiliate in Japan, the Kanagawa Prefectural Government, hosted a webinar in March 2024 to promote dissemination of relevant topics to the WHO Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities.

Kanagawa Prefecture invited four experts including a professional from WHO and topics were: Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) and management of chronic low back pain; findings from data analysis of long-term care prevention projects and gathering places for the older adults; and health education programmes to promote behaviour change by theatrical method.

Updates from the Network Secretariat

Get involved with a new way to use and produce knowledge together: the Age-friendly Environments Knowledge and Action Hubs

This newsletter issue is heaving with concrete examples of how the Global Network creates and uses knowledge to improve the lives of older people, their families, and communities. Is there a way we can better harness this strength to drive knowledge and action on specific topics that are relevant to creating age-friendly environments?

We’re establishing the Age-friendly Environments Knowledge and Action Hubs (AFE K&A Hubs) to do just that. Every AFE K&A Hub is a form of working group that brings together WHO technical staff, experts, academics, and most importantly, interested Global Network members on specific topics to:

1. Bring together the best available knowledge from all sources on a given topic;

2. Build awareness and understanding of this knowledge among Global Network members and beyond;

3. Synthesise this knowledge and adapt it to create knowledge products that can be quickly implemented in local contexts;

4. Support the Global Network to implement these products; and 

5. Refine existing knowledge through feedback and testing in real-world settings.

We've already set up AFE K&A Hubs on falls prevention and urban and territorial planning – but there's potential for so many others.

Read on to learn more about the existing hubs or contact gnafcc@who.int if you have a suggestion for a new hub.

AFE K&A Hub on falls prevention: first online dialogue session

Falls are a major risk for older people’s health and well-being – but there are many ways we can shape our cities and communities to prevent falls.

Learn more about what we know about preventing falls in age-friendly cities and communities and how to do it in the first online dialogue session of the AFE K&A Hub on Falls Prevention:

Date: 27 June 2024 (Thursday)
Time: 9:00 – 10:00 CEST (Session 1); 17:00 – 18:00 CEST (Session 2)

Russian interpretation is available for Session 1. Spanish and Portuguese interpretation is available for Session 2.

AFE K&A Hub on urban and territorial planning: Kick-off in Helsinki, Finland

The first meeting of an AFE K&A Hub on how urban and territorial planning can help create age-friendly environments took place in Helsinki, Finland, from 10–11 June 2024. 

Over 30 participants, including planners, decision-makers, researchers, and representatives from the Finnish Ministry of Environment and SYKE Institute, came together to shape the hub and identify a concrete workplan.

Vicente López (Argentina); CUHK Jockey Club Institute of Ageing - The Chinese University of Hong Kong (supporting many Global Network members from Hong Kong, China); and Tampere, Jyväskylä, Lahti, Vaasa, and Vantaa (Finland) also participated.

To get involved in this hub, email gnafcc@who.int and get ready to share urban and territorial planning practices through our Global Database from your cities and communities.

Get the latest knowledge on interventions that show promise to address abuse of older people in a new database from WHO

Abuse of older people is a hidden but serious problem with significant negative consequences for older people’s health, well-being, and rights. But although the harms of abuse of older people are clear, experts in the field agreed that no interventions had been scientifically proven to work to prevent and respond to the problem – until now.

A newly released interactive database lists 89 interventions that show promise to address abuse of older people. The interventions were identified through a rigorous search and screening of nearly 14,000 scientific studies, conducted by the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing Intervention Accelerator initiative on abuse of older people – led by WHO.

Age-friendly World is a World Health Organization website dedicated to promoting age-friendliness around the world. The World Health Organization Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities (GNAFCC) is a global coalition of cities and communities committed to becoming more age-friendly. 

Submit your news on Age-friendly World or get in touch with us at gnafcc@who.int.