This Policy Framework is intended to inform
discussion and the formulation of action plans
that promote healthy and active ageing. It was
developed by WHO’s Ageing and Life Course
Programme as a contribution to the Second
United Nations World Assembly on Ageing,
held in April 2002, in Madrid, Spain. The
preliminary version, published in 2001 entitled
Health and Ageing: A Discussion Paper, was
translated into French and Spanish and widely
circulated for feedback throughout 2001
(including at special workshops held in Brazil,
Canada, the Netherlands, Spain and the United
Kingdom). In January 2002, an expert group
meeting was convened at the WHO Centre for
Health Development (WKC) in Kobe, Japan,
with 29 participants from 21 countries. De-
tailed comments and recommendations from
this meeting, as well as those received through
the previous consultation process, were com-
piled to complete this final version.
A complementary monograph entitled
Active Ageing: From Evidence to Action is
being prepared in collaboration with the Inter-
national Association of Gerontology (IAG) and
will be available at http://www.who.int/hpr/
ageing where more information about ageing
from a life course perspective is also provided.