CommonAge and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) join forces to promote and advance healthy ageing
Commonwealth countries are diverse; they are among the world’s biggest, smallest, richest and poorest countries, and of the 8 billion people alive today, 2.5 billion of them live in Commonwealth countries.
However, as our Ageing in the Commonwealth report revealed, despite the enormous diversity in population dynamics across the countries, they all share the global trend of ageing populations. (The only exceptions to this are Lesotho and Mozambique, two of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that have been most severely affected by HIV/AIDS.)
Indeed, in the majority of Commonwealth countries, the absolute size of older population is expected to increase by at least 100 per cent over the next 25 years.
The health challenges of an ageing population
Even in the poorest and slowest ageing Commonwealth countries, where a majority of deaths are still caused by communicable diseases, poor nutrition, and childbirth, a large and growing proportion of the population is living to ages where they are more likely to die from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) than anything else.
Furthermore, even in countries with predominantly young populations people are living longer and they are developing more complex health and social needs as they age. This in turn increases demand on health and care services.
While some health conditions related to ageing are unavoidable, there are many which are avoidable; furthermore, with the right support, people can remain independent and conditions prevented from deteriorating.
We support the view that a healthy ageing population is much less expensive one for governments to support, and therefore is less of a burden on taxpayers and health systems.
Therefore, key to this conundrum is for people to stay as fit and healthy as possible for as long as possible; a social world that is adapted to longer lifespans is one that provides opportunities for older people to remain active and social engaged – after all, for those of us who are blessed to reach so called ‘old age’, we want to be living life as full as possible, healthy and well, so we can enjoy pursuing our own personal interests in later life as well as continue to contribute our wisdom, skills and experience to our communities.
Partnering for healthy ageing across the Commonwealth
Many civil society organisations have developed and sustain healthy ageing programmes entirely from the resources available within the community where they operate, however there are many low resource settings across the Commonwealth in which this expectation is unrealistic. Communities that have fewer resources to mobilise have a greater need for support. This applies just as much to disadvantaged communities in high-income countries as to low- and middle-income countries.
To address this inequity, it is vital that those who are in a position to provide assistance and knowledge of healthy ageing come together in an inclusive way, uniting other’s strengths and experience to drive positive change.
To this end, we are absolutely delighted UKRI has chosen to partner with us to ensure the benefits of its research and innovation can reach those who need it.
UKRI’s Healthy Ageing Challenge aims to help people remain active, productive, independent and socially connected across generations for as long as possible. It does this by enabling businesses, including social enterprises, to develop and deliver beneficial products, services and business models.
Through their established networks, UKRI’s community of practice, and evidence synthesis in terms of UK research and development, can be cascaded across the Commonwealth; this will empower organisations and sector leaders with knowledge and support, and will make a positive difference to older people’s lives.
Supported by UKRI’s Healthy Ageing Challenge, CommonAge’s 2023 travel bursary scheme is providing financial support to seven delegates from developing Commonwealth countries to attend the 2023 Global Ageing Conference, 6-8 September 2023.
The Global Ageing Network’s biennial conference in Glasgow, held in conjunction with Scottish Care and the National Care Forum – leading care and support provider associations in Scotland and England – provides an outstanding opportunity for international colleagues to gather in a unique forum dedicated to shared learning and professional networking.
We are also grateful for UKRI’s support extending to our other activities, including our Care Excellence Awards programme, and our celebratory 10th Anniversary event at the conference.
According to Statista, 10 per cent of the world’s 8 billion population is now aged over 65; by sector leaders and organisations coming together, we can work towards the same objective of creating better, healthy lives for older people, wherever they live.
Join us
We at CommonAge strongly believe in supporting our colleagues from developing countries, to enable and empower them to overcome the challenges they face when working to improve and enhance the lives of older people, and advocate on their behalf.
We are a charity and our voluntary Board of Directors is committed to making positive changes to older people’s lives across the Commonwealth.
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