Event highlights
What began with a regional public hearing in January 2025 reached an important milestone on 8 May 2026, as WHO/Europe convened the final formal technical consultation with Member States on “Ageing is living: a strategy for promoting a lifetime of health and well-being in the WHO European Region (2026–2030)”.
Over 16 months, more than 3000 people helped shape the strategy through consultations spanning the national and subnational levels. Member States, cities and regions, civil society, older people, youth, researchers, practitioners, WHO collaborating centres, international organizations and other partners brought different experiences – but a shared conviction that longer lives must also be healthier, more equitable and lived with dignity and purpose.
A 10-country Member State advisory committee was integral to this wider consultation process. Across 3 meetings, it provided sustained guidance and tested the strategy’s evidence, direction and feasibility against national and regional realities.
The final consultation brought this extensive body of knowledge and experience back to those the strategy is designed to support: WHO/Europe’s 53 Member States. Countries reviewed a substantially revised draft reflecting their earlier guidance on: health promotion and prevention; integrated, person-centred health and care; rehabilitation and long-term care; workforce capacity; support for caregivers; sustainable investment; equity; and implementation across different national contexts.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe joined the final exchange, bringing an essential cross-sectoral perspective. Its participation also reflected the wider role of United Nations partners in supporting countries to connect health and care with social protection, employment, housing and enabling environments – conditions that shape health and well-being, dignity, autonomy and social participation throughout life.
This process required more than comments on a document: it depended on the trust, patience and sustained engagement of Member States as the strategy evolved through successive drafts, changing evidence and sometimes competing perspectives. Their candid guidance helped transform a wide range of ideas into focused actions that are ambitious but grounded in country realities.
Ageing concerns everyone. The conditions created today will shape how current and future generations live, participate and experience health throughout their lives.
The conclusion of the technical consultations closed an important chapter in the strategy’s development. With gratitude to everyone who contributed – and especially to Member States for their leadership – the revised strategy could now advance to political consultation and the governance process ahead of its consideration for adoption at the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe, where health ministers and senior representatives of the Region’s 53 Member States meet to set regional health policy.