By Anders Hylander
The second meeting of the High-level Panel on the post-2015 development agenda is taking place this week in the Liberian capital Monrovia. The event is being hosted by the Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson, one of the co-chairs of the High-level Panel.
HelpAge staff and ageing representatives are attending the meeting and coordinating a roundtable discussion on Wednesday, specifically on the topic of ageing and disability.
It is extremely encouraging that ageing and disability are being highlighted as a key theme of the post-2015 process. This crucial process will define the development agenda that succeeds the Millennium Development Goals when they expire in 2015. We want to ensure that any new targets include older people and other marginalised groups.
Recommendations to the High-level Panel
The discussion HelpAge is coordinating will be attended by High-level Panel member Ambassador Wang Yingfan and representatives for High-level Panel members Gunilla Carlson, the Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation, and Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Development at the European Commission.
These representatives, along with selected experts on ageing and disability, will explore how these themes can be best included in the post-2015 framework. Discussions will result in a number of recommendations to the High-level Panel which will inform their post-2015 report. The document will be presented to the UN General Secretary and Member States in New York in May this year.
“The Monrovia meeting is a great opportunity to discuss the challenges of global ageing and ensure that they are properly addressed by the post-2015 framework,” said Nesta Hatendi, HelpAge’s Regional Director for East, West and Central Africa and moderator of the roundtable debate.
We want equity and inclusion
Together with disability groups, HelpAge believes that sustainable outcomes for the post-2015 process must be based on equity and inclusion. They must focus on the poorest, most marginalised groups, such as people with disabilities and older people. Any new agenda must be driven by a human rights-based approach, with non-discrimination as a priority.
Beyond this meeting, we are working towards a post-2015 framework which includes:
- A cross-cutting goal which promotes equality and tackles discrimination to ensure people with disabilities, older people and other marginalised groups are included.
- The disaggregation of data by disability and age group in all targets to ensure older people and people with disabilities benefit equally from future development progress.
- A goal on healthy life expectancy with targets to measure life expectancy from birth and healthy life expectancy at 60. This would lead to more effective health interventions for all age groups.
- A goal on delivering the universal adoption of social protection floors; enabling vulnerable citizens to tackle poverty.
What else are we doing?
To ensure our recommendations are heard in this process, we are engaging in a number of consultations:
- National consultations in at least 20 countries.
- Six thematic consultations including population dynamics, inequalities and health.
- The MY World initiative, a UN-led, global outreach programme.
- Participate, a UKAID-funded, participatory research project.
Learn more
- Read our ageing and disability briefing for the Monrovia meeting.
- Read our discussion papers on the post-2015 process.
- Follow the discussion on Twitter via the hashtag #post2015HLP.