_ Older persons and development
_ Advancing health and wellbeing into old age
_ Enabling and supportive environments

The Plan sets out a vision and values for a society for all ages. It calls for changes in attitudes, policies and practices, so that the enormous potential of ageing may be fulfilled. It stresses older people's right to development, calls for an end to age discrimination, and emphasises the need to mainstream ageing into global development agendas. The stated aim of the Plan is to ensure that people everywhere can age with security and dignity, and continue to participate in their societies as citizens with full rights. The Plan calls for governments to place the specific contributions and concerns of older people in the context of the major United Nations conferences and summits, special sessions of the General Assembly and review follow-up processes. Implementing the agreements reached at these events would enable older people to contribute fully and benefit equally from development.

The Plan states that older people must be full participants in the development process, and also share in its benefits. It calls for recognition of the social and economic contribution of older people, including those made through unpaid work, particularly women.

It says that older people should be enabled to continue with incomegenerating work for as long as they want to and can do so. It refers to commitments made at the 1995 World Summit for Social Development on promoting the goal of full employment. It recommends promoting selfemployment initiatives for older people, ensuring access to credit for older people, and eliminating age barriers in the formal labour market.
The Plan calls for policies for food security and agricultural production to take into account the implications of rural ageing, recommends equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults, and promotes solidarity between generations. The Plan highlights the eradication of older people's poverty as a fundamental aim. It commits governments to including older people in policies and programmes to reach the Millennium Development Goal of halving numbers of people living in extreme poverty by 2015.

The Plan calls for the promotion of programmes to enable all workers to acquire basic social protection, including, where applicable, pensions, disability insurance and health benefits. The Plan recognises both the vulnerability and potential of older people in emergency situations. It calls for governments and humanitarian relief agencies to recognise that older people can make a positive contribution. It also calls for equal access by older people to food, shelter and medical care and other services during and after emergencies.

The Plan mentions the responsibility of individuals to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and of governments to create a 'supportive environment' that enables people to maintain their health and wellbeing into old age.

For both humanitarian and economic reasons, older people should have the same access to preventive and curative care and rehabilitation as other groups.
The Plan promotes a 'life course' approach to wellbeing in old age. It describes health promotion activities and access to health services throughout life as the cornerstone of healthy ageing. Linking health to broader issues affecting people's lives, the Plan calls for improvements in the economic and social situation of older people to improve their health as well.

The Plan calls for a reduction of the cumulative effects of factors that increase the risk of disease and, consequently, dependence in older age. Policies should be developed to prevent ill-health among older people, and all older people should have access to food and adequate nutrition.

The Plan recognises the impact of HIV/AIDS on older people and recommends ways to alleviate it. These include researching HIV/AIDS infection in older people, researching health needs of older carers, providing information, training, medical care and social support to older people living with HIV/AIDS and their carers, reviewing the economic impact of HIV/AIDS on older carers, and developing policies to support older carers.
The Plan calls for an urgent expansion in agecare training for health and social workers working with older people. Anticipating a significant increase in the number of older people with mental illness, due to population ageing, the Plan emphasises the need to develop a full range of mental health care services.

The Plan calls for the full participation of older people with disabilities. It commits governments to ensuring that issues concerning older people with disabilities are included in the agendas of national policy and programme coordination agencies dealing with disability, and encouraging the development of self-help organisations of older people with disabilities.

The Plan calls for the promotion of 'ageing in place' in the community, taking into account older people's preferences and what is affordable. Governments should promote provision of community-based care and support of family care, and support carers through training, information, psychological, economic, social and legislative mechanisms. It points out that provision of care to those who need it, whether by or for older people, is mostly done by the family or community, especially in developing countries. It calls for assistance for older carers, and improved health and social services for older people needing care.

The Plan calls for provision of a 'continuum' of care and services for older people from various sources and support for carers, and support for the caregiving role of older people, particularly older women. All forms of neglect, abuse and violence of older people should be eliminated.

The Plan recommends raising awareness among professionals and the general public, abolishing harmful traditional practices involving older people, enforcing laws against elder abuse, encouraging cooperation between government and civil society in addressing elder abuse, minimizing risks to older women, especially in emergency situations, and encouraging research into elder abuse. The Plan calls for greater public recognition of the authority, wisdom, productiveness and other contributions of older people.

The Plan notes that a vital first step towards implementation would be to mainstream ageing and the concerns of older people into national development frameworks and poverty-eradication strategies. It stresses that NGOs are vital in supporting governments' efforts to implement, assess and review the Plan.

Research and technology should be directed at the individual, social and health implications of ageing, particularly in developing countries.It points out that, at the global level, better coherence, governance and consistency is urgently needed in the international monetary, financial and trading systems. The Plan notes that a substantial increase in overseas development aid is required if developing countries are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. It calls for urgent action to address the debt problems of developing countries. 'Developed' countries are urged to make concrete efforts towards the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product as aid to developing countries, including 0.15 per cent to 'least developed' countries.

Responsibility for facilitating and promoting the Plan is allocated to the United Nations Programme on Ageing (part of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs). Responsibility for translating the Plan into regional action plans rests with the United Nations regional commissions, and national governments are responsible for ensuring that the Plan takes effect.