October 1st – The International Day of Older Persons

The International Day of Older Persons was proclaimed in Resolution 45/106 adopted by the UN General Assembly on 14 December 1990.

Improvements in living conditions and advances in medicine have contributed to a high increase in average life expectancy in most countries of the world. United Nations studies indicate that, by 2050, the number of older adults will double. The big increase will take place in Asian and African countries, as in European and North American countries this is a change that is already taking place.

The International Day of Older Persons is a day to celebrate the value of older adulthood to our societies, highlighting its important contributions to the whole community. For the 2022 International Day of Older Persons, the United Nations focused on the female gender. Thus, they chose the following as their objectives:

To highlight the resilience of older women in the face of environmental, social, economic and lifelong inequalities
To raise awareness of the importance of improved world-wide data collection, disaggregated by age and gender
To call on member states, UN entities, UN Women, and civil society to include older women in the center of all policies, ensuring gender equality as described in the Secretary-General’s report, Our Common Agenda^[1].

In GreenerAge, we value older adults contribution to tackle the climatic and environmental changes. Our desk research and interviews showed that adults 55+ are willing to change behaviour, but often do not know what to do or how. We are now developing the learning platform where tools and materials will be available that will help making this change to a greener behaviour!