WHO / IFA Webinar on the “WHO Core Indicators of Age-Friendliness”

The latest WHO / IFA webinar was a great success! The second in a series of webinars in the field of AFE, the “WHO Core Indicators of Age-Friendliness” webinar was presented by Dr. Megumi Kano of the World Health Organization Centre for Health Development (Kobe Centre).

This webinar familiarized participants with the WHO guide to “Measuring the Age-Friendliness of Cities: A Guide to Core Indicators,” and underscored Dr. Kano’s knowledge of the core indicators for age-friendly cities. The webinar also encouraged contributors to ask questions and share ideas related to AFE. Handouts for the webinar can be found by clicking here. Sample questions from the webinar can be found here.

Three key messages conveyed during this webinar include:

1. The WHO Core Indicator Guide is an important standardization tool in conceptualizing age-friendly environments as settings that can be measurably evaluated and improved upon;
2. The WHO Core Indicator Guide is also an adaptable tool that has enough built-in flexibility to meet local needs while also having widespread efficacy;
3. These core indicators ensure that members of the Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities (GNAFCC) have a means for monitoring and evaluating their continuous development toward becoming age-friendly.

This series of webinars is a part of the IFA’s ongoing commitment to exchanging information and knowledge on age-friendly environments. The IFA continues to develop additional age-friendly initiatives such as:

• An IFA age-friendly enewsletter with a Q & A forum (building on the questions which are asked during the webinars);
• Encouraging contributions of good practice, lessons learned and solutions to barriers for the enewsletter;
• Additional webinars, including the 3rd WHO / IFA Webinar on age-friendly environments responding to the needs of people with dementia, to be held in June 2017 (More information to follow).

To be part of ongoing developments in the IFA’s work on age-friendly, and to receive and make contributions to the upcoming age-friendly newsletter, register interest here or contact Jessica Rochman-Fowler (jrochman-fowler@ifa-fiv.org).