A four-day expert workshop on Age Friendly Environment and AgeWatch Index was held by the National Council for the Elderly and Tehran Municipality in cooperation with UNFPA.

Attending the opening and closing ceremony of the workshop were a number of relevant officials such as Dr.Barati  , the Head of Secretariat National  Council  for the Elderly, Dr. Mohseni Bandpey, Deputy Minister and the Head of State Welfare Organization,  Prof. Hosseini, the  Acting Minister for International Affairs in the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, Ms. Zamani, the Director General of Health Office in Tehran’s Municipality   , Dr. Hafezi, the Head of Health and Environment Commission in the City Council of Tehran, Dr. El-Adawy, UNFPA Representative and a number of representatives from relevant NGOs.

Ageing, being a global phenomenon, is the concern of many developing countries including the Islamic Republic of Iran. Older people make up 6.2 million of the country’s population, a number which is expected to reach 25% of the population in 35 years.

At the request of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s government and in co-operation with its governmental partners, UNFPA has offered  two senior international consultants  from HelpAge  International and International Federation on Ageing,   international bodies mainly working on the issue of ageing in the world.

In the opening ceremony of the workshop Dr. Barati pointed out the importance of  income security, empowering environment and health for the elderly and invited every governmental, non-governmental and international attendee to share their knowledge in order to ultimately reach a comprehensive document for an age friendly environment.

Dr. Bandpey, while thanking UNFPA for its on-going cooperation and support, touched on the universality of the subject and said: “Ageing needs to be integrated into sustainable development plans and for that an inclusive, process-based and macro-oriented approach is necessary.”

Dr. Hosseini expressed hope for an improved collaboration between governmental organizations and said: “Ageing is a social concern for which policies need to be developed but it is not political by nature. Through proper planning and access to accurate data we can turn challenges to opportunities.”

Gregory Shaw, International Federation on Ageing (IFA), and Aleksandr Mihnovits, HelpAge International  both emphasized on the role of the National Council for the Elderly   to create suitable bedding for collaboration between relevant governmental organizations  and develop a comprehensive document on age friendly environment as well as calculating the AgeWatch Index, a factor to determine the quality of life of older people.

Dr. El-Adawy thanked all UNFPA  partners who dedicatedly attended the workshops and said: “Iran will overcome the ageing challenge just as it overcame the high maternal mortality rate in the past. This workshop will be an opportunity to make use of international expertise while also sharing our valuable experience with the world.”