Social Protection Resource Centre (SPRC) and World Health Organization (WHO) had jointly organized an event in connection with the United Nations (UN) Day of Older Persons (IDOP) on Thursday, 1st October 2020 at Ramada Hotel, Islamabad. For WHO, this day also marked the beginning of the activities in the context of the decision by the 73rd World Health Assembly to dedicate the 2020s as a<strong> Decade of Healthy Ageing</strong>. One of the key highlights of the program was the launch of SPRC Flagship Report on the Old Age Well Being in Pakistan 2020. Realizing that the COVID-19 Pandemic has bared many vulnerabilities in the lives of the Older Persons, the Theme of UN Day of Older Persons 2020 was <strong>“Pandemics: Do They Change How We Address Age and Ageing?”</strong>. The SPRC report, supported by the WHO Country Office had also included a Special Feature on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Elderly in Pakistan based on a survey carried out during the past weeks. The report provided multidimensional approaches encompassing all the core elements related to the social protection for older population of Pakistan and would be published every year.<br><br>
The event provided an opportunity to celebrate the contribution of Older Persons to the society and highlighted the work being done by the Government, UN Agencies, and the Development Sector to promote healthy ageing in Pakistan. The event successfully generated discourse around the critical issues of wellbeing of older population of Pakistan in particular highlighting the key linkages towards access to Universal Social Protection (USP) under the global auspices of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also proposed for the possible set of recommendations and action plans to address the unmet social protection needs of the ageing population in the country.