International training programme on ageing

The UN International Institute on Ageing, Malta (INIA), in collaboration with the UN Fund for Population Affairs (UNFPA), is organising an international training programme in policy formulation, planning, implementation and monitoring of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing.

The programme, to be held between tomorrow and November 1 at the Imperial Hotel, Sliema, will be opened by Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly and Community Care Mario Galea in the presence of INIA director Joseph Troisi.

The international training programme will discuss the commitments of the Madrid action plan as well as regional implementation strategy.

It also ensures that policies in response to population ageing have a holistic approach and are implemented in a coordinated manner over a wide range of policy areas.

The programme explores ways to facilitate the participation of all stakeholders, namely governments, civil society, the family, the community and the older people themselves.

Participants will have the opportunity to discuss theoretical frameworks and available evidence-based practices, regar­ding adequate policy responses to population ageing.

This intensive programme is composed of lectures, workshops and site visits to Karin Grech, Villa Messina in Rabat and Mtarfa Home for the elderly.

Apart from various local experts, the lecturers on the course include Tomas Kucera, assistant professor of demography at the Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.

Other speakers are Alexandre Sidorenko, former UN expert and focal point on ageing and Paul Murad Saad, chief of the Population and Development Area of the Latin America and Caribbean Demographic Centre (CELADE) – Population Division of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Participants taking part hail from Cameroon, India, Indonesia, Moldova, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Romania, Serbia, Singapore and Thailand.