HelpAge International has prepared a letter to the UN Secretary General (UNSG) and asking for your support.
We all very much welcomed the leadership from the UNSG through his UN policy brief on the impact of COVID-19 on older people. While the policy brief is an important statement of support, it does need to be followed up with a plan of action to uphold the rights and dignity of older people across the UN system. So we are seizing this opportunity to start a conversation and writing to him with a call to action on older people’s rights. We are asking network members and partner organisations more broadly to join us in sending a strong message to SG Antonio Guterres by signing on to a letter highlighting the gaps in the UN system on ageing and older people and asking him to share his plan of action to address these gaps. The letter is attached here and we would be delighted if we could count with your support.
If your organisation is happy to support this call, please email Verity.McGivern@helpage.org and provide the name of your organisation and logo by 12:00 UK time on Thursday, 28 May 2020.
In-country engagement with governments and UN teams
146 countries have now signed onto a statement supporting the Secretary General’s policy brief and his appeal for countries to promote responses to the pandemic that uphold the rights and dignity of older people. We have been encouraging network members in those countries to contact their governments and UN country teams to engage in a dialogue about the concrete steps being taken to include older people within COVID-19 preparedness and response plans, as well as about using the SDGs to build back better from the pandemic.
We hope that your organisation will decide to support our call to Secretary-General Guterres and look forward to hearing from you.
Mariana Rudge, Agenda 2030 Manage, HelpAge International.
Download request: FOR SIGN ON - Letter to Secretary General (PDF 130 KB)