UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004 Tsunami

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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004 Tsunami

• February 13-14, 2006

Recommendations
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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing
2002 Equal access by older persons to food,
shelter and medical care and other services
during and after natural disasters and other
humanitarian emergencies. (para 55 objective
1) Enhanced contributions of older persons to
the establishment and reconstruction of
communities and the rebuilding of the social
fabric following emergencies. (para 55 objective
2) Note Review and appraisal process underway

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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations

• Social Legal Protection
• Visibility and Inclusion
• Mainstreaming
• Practical and Financial Resource Support

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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Social Legal Protection MIPAA
recommendations - Actions para 55

• Take concrete measures to protect and assist
  older persons in
• situations of armed conflict and foreign
  occupation, including through
• the provision of physical and mental
  rehabilitation services for those
• who are disabled in these situations
• (b) Call upon Governments to protect, assist and
  provide humanitarian
• assistance and humanitarian emergency assistance
  to older persons in
• situations of internal displacement in accordance
  with General
• Assembly resolutions

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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Social Legal Protection MIPAA
recommendations - Actions para 55 (contd)
h) Assist older persons to re-establish family
and social ties and address their post-traumatic
stress (j) Raise awareness and protect older
persons from physical, psychological, sexual or
financial abuse in emergency situations, paying
particular attention to the specific risks faced
by women
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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Social Legal Protection

• Human rights framework for relief and
  reconstruction
• International policy / protection framework for
  older IDPs
• Standards to include and target older and
  disabled persons
• IASC cluster to include older persons as
  cross-cutting theme
• Implement agreed international standards

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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations

• Social Legal Protection
• Visibility and Inclusion
• Mainstreaming
• Practical and Financial Resource Support

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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Visibility and Inclusion MIPAA
recommendations - Actions para 55
(c) Locate and identify older persons in
emergency situations and ensure inclusion of
their contributions and vulnerabilities in needs
assessment reports (d) Raise awareness among
relief agency personnel of the physical and
health issues specific to older persons and of
ways to adapt basic needs support to their
requirements 21 A/CONF.197/9 (g) Make explicit
reference to, and design national guidelines for,
assisting older persons in disaster relief plans,
including disaster preparedness, training for
relief workers and availability of services and
goods
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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Visibility and Inclusion MIPAA
recommendations - Actions para 56 (contd)

• Include older persons in the provision of
  community relief and rehabilitation programmes,
  including by identifying and helping vulnerable
  older persons
• (b) Recognize the potential of older persons as
  leaders in the family and community for
  education, communication and conflict resolution
• (f) Share and apply, as appropriate, lessons
  learned from practices that have successfully
  utilized the contributions of older persons in
  the aftermath of emergencies.

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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Visibility and Inclusion

• Older persons participate in decision-making at
  all levels family, community and policy
• Promote a paradigm that treats older persons as
  active subjects, rather than passive objects
• Transparent system of dissemination of
  information for all
• Create greater awareness among donors and media
  of aging issues

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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Visibility and Inclusion (contd)

• More effective and inclusive assessment
  techniques.
• Collection of accurate data, disaggregated by
  age and gender on the elderly.
• Exchange of information, lessons learned and
  identification of best practices on response and
  assistance to the elderly
• Increase training of international agencies to
  include vulnerable groups in existing programs

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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations

• Social Legal Protection
• Visibility and Inclusion
• Mainstreaming
• Practical and Financial Resource Support

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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Mainstreaming MIPAA recommendations -
Actions para 55
(k) Encourage a more targeted inclusion of older
refugees in all aspects of programme planning and
implementation, inter alia, by helping active
persons to be more self-supporting and by
promoting better community care initiatives for
the very old (l) Enhance international
cooperation, including burden-sharing and
coordination of humanitarian assistance to
countries affected by natural disasters and other
humanitarian emergencies and post-conflict
situations in ways that would be supportive of
recovery and long-term development.
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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Mainstreaming

• Build upon local strengths and coping mechanisms
• Targeted plan of action at national and regional
  level to assist elderly population in emergencies
• Mainstream issues and concerns of vulnerable
  groups into all policies, programmes and
  projects.
• Strengthen coordination efforts and the overall
  coordination framework.
• Include older people in inter-agency emergency
  programming guidelines

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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations

• Social Legal Protection
• Visibility and Inclusion
• Mainstreaming
• Practical and Financial Resource Support

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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Practical and Financial Resources Support
MIPAA recommendations - Actions para 55
(e) Aim to ensure that appropriate services are
available, that older persons have physical
access to them and that they are involved in
planning and delivering services as
appropriate (f) Recognize that older refugees of
different cultural backgrounds growing old in new
and unfamiliar surroundings are often in special
need of social networks and of extra support and
aim to ensure that they have physical access to
such services (i) Following disasters, put in
place mechanisms to prevent the targeting and
financial exploitation of older persons by
fraudulent opportunists
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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Practical and Financial Resources Support
MIPAA recommendations - Actions para 56 (contd)
(c) Assist older persons to re-establish economic
self-sufficiency through rehabilitation projects,
including income generation, educational
programmes and occupational activities, taking
into account the special needs of older
women (d) Provide legal advice and information
to older persons in situations of displacement
and dispossession of land and other productive
and personal assets
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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Practical and Financial Resource Support

• Capacity building for local organizations
  representing vulnerable groups
• Support community-based and self-reliance
  initiatives
• Income security Livelihoods, Cash transfers,
  Skills training
• Health and nutrition

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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Practical and Financial Resource Support
(contd)
Psychosocial support Shelter Improve
coordination and collaboration among agencies,
governments and organizations Establish
mechanisms to support older persons access to
their entitlements
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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami - Recommendations
Way Forward
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UN Roundtable on Older Persons in the 2004
Tsunami
Thank you
Find this roundtables full review and some
additional resources at http//www.globalaging.or
g
Technical conception Thibault MARTIN-DONDOZ,
Global Action on Aging, New York, NY, USA,
February 2006