Influencing and campaigning

AGE Platform Europe

International Federation on Ageing

AARP

World Health Organisation

European influencing

Age UK influences policy at a European level in order to improve older people's lives within the EU and worldwide, because European institutions impact on the lives of older people everywhere. Our aim is to proactively influence policy and legislation to benefit people in later life and to ensure that older people's needs and views are reflected across the work of the EU. We are currently focusing on pension policies, health, employment and equality.

Age UK was instrumental in helping to create the Employment Equality Directive (EED) - legislation banning age discrimination in work and training in countries within the European Union. A new directive - the Equal Treatment Directive (ETD) - is curently being discussed by EU member states in the Council of Ministers and would address age discrimination in the provision of goods and services.

HelpAge International

Working through our sister organisation, HelpAge International, we also represent older people’s voices where they might otherwise not be heard. HelpAge International produces documents and provides evidence at meetings attended by world leaders in order to outline how their policies affect the world’s poorest older people.

HelpAge International also works with governments and aid agencies in developing countries to ensure that older people’s needs are taken into consideration. This is important when governments create new policies, develop strategies to reduce poverty and decide how to spend international aid.

Age Demands Action

On 1 October each year - the International Day of Older People – our sister agency, HelpAge International, coordinates delegations of older people around the world to demand change and for their voice to be heard.

This campaign, known as Age Demands Action, is the only globally coordinated activity by older people to press for change.

Older People's Associations (OPAs)

Older people are among the most vulnerable in society. Not only are they hardest hit by poverty and disaster, but their voices are often ignored. Without a voice, more older people suffer hardship and pain; may be left lonely and isolated; and be excluded from projects that could help them.

Working with HelpAge International, Age UK helps set up Older People’s Associations (OPAs) around the world. These groups allow older people to voice their needs, claim their rights and gain recognition and dignity. They also provide a space where older people can find company and share their experiences.

Together we support over 2,400 Older People's Associations in more than 40 developing countries. Age UK also supports OPAs in the former Soviet Union and the Western Balkans.