(1) The Commission for Social Development will address the issues of ageing and older persons under agenda item 3(b) on Friday, 10 February 2006 and on Monday, 13 February 2006 at its 44th session at UN headquarters. Please find more information on the Commission at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/csd/csocd2006.htm

(2) A special panel on the planned review and appraisal of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing will take place in the afternoon of Friday, 10 February 2006. The panel will be composed of three speakers with experience in the field of participatory methodologies and at different levels, who will address various aspects of a bottom-up approach in order to provide information and experience to delegations.

(3) Numerous side-events, including on ageing, will be convened during the Commission for Social Development. For a - yet tentative - list, check the following web link periodically: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/csd/csocd2006/sideevents%2706.htm

(4) As one of the side-events, the International Council for Caring Communities (ICCC) organizes an international conference on "Age of Connectivity: Caring Communities for the 21st Century: Imagining the Possible" on 10 February 2006 at UN headquarters. As part of a series of interlinked congresses addressing the “Age of Longevity” held in cities around the world, this conference is being held in support of the Commission for Social Development. It is organized by the ICCC in collaboration with the United Nations Programme for Human Settlements (UN-HABITAT), UN Programme on Ageing (Department of Economic and Social Affairs), Department of Public Information, NGOs and the private sector.
The conference will consist of two sessions and two panel discussions. For more information, please direct your Internet server to: http://www.un.org/events/agingcf.htm

(5) HelpAge International, the UN DESA, UNDP, and DFID will hold a discussion on "Not Just a Numbers Game: Ensuring the Excluded Get Counted in Poverty Monitoring" on February 10 at 1.15 in Conference Room 8. For a list of speakers, please check the above-mentioned web-site on side-events during CSocD.

(6) AARP and the International Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (IAHSA) convene a panel discussion on "Quality of Care, Economic Development, and the International Migration of Long-Term Care Workers" on 10 February 2006. For a list of speakers, please check the above-mentioned web-site on side-events during CSocD.

(7) Global Action on Aging and HelpAge International in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation is organizing a two day UN Roundtable on the situation of older persons in the 2004 Tsunami disaster during the Commission on Social Development. The events will highlight the particular situation of older persons in the tsunami disaster and discuss how local and international relief efforts met this challenge. Speakers will offer recommendations on how the response could better serve older persons in the future.
The roundtable will take place on:
Monday, 13 February, 2006, 9:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
in the United Nations Conference Room D
and on
Tuesday, 14 February, 2006, 1:00 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
in the United Nations Conference Room A
Speakers: Mark Bowden, Director of Policy Branch, UNOCHA, Matthew Cherian, Chief Executive HA India, Sarah Martin, Advocate, Refugees International, Susanne Loos-Jayawickreme, Vice-Chairperson, Jayawickreme Foundation, Sri Lanka. Others to be confirmed.
Please visit: http://www.globalaging.org/armedconflict/countryreports/asiapacific/Tsunami%20Leaflet.pdf

(8) The UN programme on ageing cooperated with “Verkhovna Rada” (Parliament) of Ukraine in organizing a two day policy seminar on the national implementation of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing. Among the organizers of the Seminar were also a newly established State Educational and Training Geriatric Centre. The purpose of the Seminar, which was held in Kyiv from 11 to 12 January 2006, was to explore the role of legislative measures in implementing and monitoring the Madrid Plan of Action and to discuss the ways to promote cooperation between legislature, government and civil society in the area of ageing. The Seminar was attended by representatives of the Parliamentary Committee on Pensioners, Veterans and Persons with Disability, representatives of Government, academia and civil society.