Dear all,

Thank you Vitalija, for spreading the good news.

Let me first of all thank the secretariat and Vitalija for the good preparations of the report and of my presentation. They also did a good footwork in advance to get the necessary support from delegations in Geneva for transforming the WGA to a Standing Working Group.

A small change in our working group's name, but an important one, because it gives us more stability and predictability.

I enclose the presentation for your information. I made a point of how all our acitivities actually are carried out by a very small unit at the ECE-Population Unit. The budget is limited, and risks to be subject to further cuts.  And I made a little personal remark of how I value as a national focal point to meet colleagues, to interchange and to get information on ageing issues from different international organizations.
It is important that we promote the working group.  Population ageing and ageing issues and sustainability should be much higher on the agenda.

Our working group was actually encouraged, by the represent of the United States, to take part in the 10th meeting of the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing in UN-New York in 15-18 April.

https://social.un.org/ageing-working-group/

Hopefully, some of us can take part, and take the opportunity to inform about the UN-ECE Standing Working Group on Ageing and the Lisbon Declaration. We have a method of work that is fruitful.

I look forward to our further work to evoke the opportunities on ageing.

Best wishes,

Aina
Vice Chair of the Standing Working Group on Ageing

Dear WGA members,

dear colleagues,

I am writing to you to share the good news!

At the EXCOM meeting last Friday, 1 February 2019, the WGA matters were prominently on the agenda. As our Chair, Edmundo Martinho, could not attend the meeting, it was the Vice-Chair, Aina Strand, who represented the Working Group and delivered the annual Chair’s report on the WGA work. She also invited the EXCOM to endorse the revised Terms of Reference (ToR) including the change of the WGA name to a Standing Working Group on Ageing (SWGA).

The Chair’s report was greeted very positively with the delegates from the Russian Federation, the European Union, Belarus, United States and Switzerland taking the floor to acknowledge the value added of the WGA work, praising the policy briefs, Active Ageing Index, support for the development of national strategies on ageing as well as efforts to link the policy framework on ageing with the 2030 Agenda as the first Policy seminar illustrated. 

The deliberations on the revised ToR and the name change were short as there were no questions raised and the EXCOM agreed to endorse the revised ToR and name change and transmit them to the Economic Commission for Europe for consideration at its sixty-eighth session which will take place on 9-10 April 2019.

I would like to thank Aina for stepping in at a very short notice and congratulate her on a good and convincing presentation of the WGA work. You may find all the documents related to the EXCOM meeting at the http://www.unece.org/info/about-unece/executive-committee-excom/meetings/2019/103rd-meeting.html.

I also would like to take this opportunity and thank the WGA members who volunteered to take part in the Task Force on developing guidelines for mainstreaming ageing:

Erika Winkler (Austria), Hanna Zakreuskaya (Belarus), Manon Therriault (Canada), Katerina Knapova (Czech Republic), Martin Amberger (Germany), Karl Duff (Ireland), Pietro Checcucci (Italy), Aliona Cretu (Republic of Moldova), Manuel Montero Rey (Spain), and NGO representatives — Margaret Gillis (ILC Canada), Bayan Akhmetzhanova (Ardager, Kazakhstan), Galina Poliakova (Turbota pro Litnih, Ukraine).

We will coordinate with the Chair, Edmundo Martinho, regarding the initial concept note on the guidelines and the first online meeting of the Task Force.

Wishing you a good start of the week,

Vitalija

Vitalija Gaucaite Wittich

Chief, Population Unit, Statistical Division

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Email: vitalia.gaucaite@un.org

Tel:  +41 (0) 22 917 14 62

Mob: +41 (0) 79 618 34 31

Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 00 40

Office C-436

Palais des Nations

8-14 avenue de la Paix

CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

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