While it only seems like yesterday that the last conference took place in Niagara Falls, November 2021, as of today we are six months away from the 16thInternational Federation on Ageing (IFA) Conference 2023in Bangkok, Thailand – June 27 to 30. Challenge, Transformation, Change is the tagline this year and as the IFA says, this event is “set against the backdrop of important international agendas that align and intersect with the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing”.
The Decade of Healthy Ageinglaunched in 2021 and now entering its third year the IFA has further connected itself to this initiative by announcing its pledge to help form a Decade of Health Ageing Alliance early next year ahead of the conference in June. This alliance is to unite civil society organizations to activate the conversation, but while we wait for more news on that, my hope is that the message on what this initiative is all about registers more effectively with everyday people on the street.
Threaded through the IFA conference tagline of Challenge, Transformation, Change, are five themes: Age-friendly Environments, Digital Technologies & Practice, Immunization for All Ages, Maintaining & improving Function and Older Women. The full program of specific topics, key-note speakers and presenters behind all these themes has yet to be announced, but as with the last two conferences in 2018 and 2021 my blog posts will provide updates as often as possible.
Calls for abstractsare now open on the IFA Conference Website. All submissions should consider how the topic links with the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing action areas and enablers.