The Dublin Declaration on Age Friendly Cities and Communities
Modelled on the Barcelona Declaration (1995) the Dublin Declaration on Age Friendly Cities and Communities in Europe (2013) was developed on a collaborative basis by the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Network of Age-friendly Cities, the Ageing Well Network, and the International Federation on Ageing following a detailed consultation with international experts in the field of age friendly cities and with local authorities.
The aim of the Declaration is to commit signatories to a range of actions that are broadly based on the eight domains identified by the WHO in its Global Age-friendly Cities Guide. The Declaration expresses the clear commitment of political leaders of cities and communities to strengthen and champion action to make their communities more age friendly and highlights the need for ongoing improvement across a range of interrelated domains of older people’s lives. It commits signatories to undertake a continuous cycle of improvement through a planning process supported by participation in the WHO’s Global Network of Age-friendly Cities.
The 2014 joint hosting, by Dublin City Council together with Age Friendly Ireland, of a civic ceremony in Dublin’s City Hall saw the signing of the Declaration by 10 local authorities. This occasion marked the full engagement by all of Ireland’s 31 local authorities with the Declaration. The Taoiseach (prime minister), on the occasion of the 2014 signing described the landmark as ‘’a declaration of Ireland’s united commitment to creating an age friendly State.’’
Various signings of the global Declaration, the official custodian of which is Dublin City Council, have brought the total signatories to more than 120 including a host of international cities such as New York, Mexico, Manchester, Edinburgh and Seoul.