HelpAge Network in Asia Pacific
HelpAge International works in partnership with more than 40 different organisations across Asia Pacific to promote the rights of older people. We work to ensure they are not overlooked in humanitarian response, including in programs, policies and guidelines.
Description
Since 1988, HelpAge International has worked across Asia to improve older people's lives and raise awareness about the issues that affect them.
HelpAge and its partners work to ensure that older people are included in disaster risk management and that the knowledge, experience and credibility of older women and men is factored into preparing for and managing an effective disaster response.
Older people often have a central role in their communities which enables them to help with identifying and targeting those most at risk, and they help build community resilience, as well as taking care of children, providing moral support, etc.
The psychosocial wellbeing of older people post-disaster is enhanced by supporting them to participate in the response processes. HelpAge carries-out capacity strengthening and advocacy activities, embedding disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into long term programming which serves to foster more resilient older people and communities.
In addition to emergency response, we advocate for and implement social protection schemes that provide older people with secure incomes and work to ensure older people can access health and care services.
In Asia much of our work is done through Older People's Associations where older people socialise, plan and address the needs of their local community.
In addition to country offices in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam, we reach out to older people in another 12 countries across Asia through more than 40 organisations in the HelpAge global network.
Did the Sendai Framework change or contribute to changes in your activities/organization? If so, how?
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the global plan for reducing disaster losses, suggests that the resilience of communities and nations is a necessary condition for sustainable economic and social development. Building upon this premise, our work is specifically aligned with the Sendai Framework's call to engage older persons in the design of policies, plans and mechanisms to leverage their knowledge, skills and wisdom that are invaluable assets for reduce disaster risk.
What led you to make this commitment/initiative?
What was your position before making this Voluntary Commitment / prior to the Sendai Framework?
HelpAge is the only international development agency to focus on older people’s specific needs in emergencies and humanitarian crises. HelpAge in Asia acknowledges that disasters disproportionately affected vulnerable people such as older people and work to reduce those negative impacts.
We also believe that older people have valuable assets such as social knowledge, experience and credibility, which are critical in identifying and targeting the most vulnerable in a community. Likewise, including older people in the processes before, during, and after a disaster not only improves the effectiveness of plans and policies but also improves the psychosocial wellbeing of older people by encouraging them to get involved.
Deliverables and Progress report
Deliverables
Deliverables are the end-products of the initiative/commitment, which can include issuance of publications or knowledge products, outcomes of workshops, training programs, videos, links, photographs, etc.
Through our HelpAge global network in Bangladesh, Resource Integration Centre (RIC) and Bangladesh Association for the Aged and Institute of Geriatric Medicine, we are helping those most at risk, including older people, through three age-friendly spaces in one of the permanent camps in Cox's Bazar. They provide health screenings and home-based care in the camp community, access to age-friendly latrines, and ensure older people reach the services they need. Read about our age-friendly spaces in this blog from RIC's executive director.
We desperately need funds to reach the vulnerable older people affected by the Myanmar crisis. Please give today. If you live in the UK, please donate through our partner Age International, and for anywhere else in the world donate through us.
In almost every disaster we have witnessed, older people have been disproportionately affected. In many cases older people were invisible or their particular needs were subsumed in the maelstrom of responses to those disasters. Preparedness plans were not inclusive. But there is clear awareness now that any humanitarian intervention nowadays has to be inclusive.
In this context, HelpAge International – with engagement from network and partners in Asia – has developed a “Regional Strategy for Age-Inclusive Disaster Risk Management (DRM)”, which aims at reducing and preventing disaster and climate risks to older people. The strategy calls for coherent and collaborative efforts and defines four interlinked long-term outcomes, which lead to eight priority action areas to enable ‘step changes’ or ‘breakthroughs’.
This 2-page infographic summarises the strategy framework, priority action areas and approaches. You can contact us for a copy of the strategy paper.
The study titled ‘More at risk: How older people are excluded in humanitarian data’ commissioned by HelpAge International. The objective of the study was to evaluate existing policies and practices concerning the inclusion of data about older people in terms of disaster preparedness and humanitarian response. The countries covered were Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences pose significant threats to the wellbeing and dignity of older persons across the Asia Pacific region. The pandemic will have far-reaching and long-lasting impacts in unpredictable ways. Monitoring the impacts of COVID-19 on older persons is therefore essential to inform policy makers and the broader society in order to ensure responses are inclusive of older persons. Throughout 2020, HelpAge and UNFPA, therefore, monitored the situation of older people across the region and in a sample of target countries.
HelpAge Asia Pacific regional office jointly organised webinars with international and regional agencies in the region to represent the voice of older people regarding their experiences, needs and contribution, as well as to call for age-inclusive policies and responses.
HelpAge in Asia works hard to ensure older people are included in immediate and long-term humanitarian relief efforts on the ground, and in humanitarian policies and guidelines.
HelpAge Asia regularly produces publications, stories, videos, and games on inclusion, among others.
The ‘Timely and Inclusive Emergency Response’ (TIER) project – provides the opportunity for HelpAge and its network members to prevent damage and loss to older people, their families, resources, and capital. Its approach is to ensure that natural disasters preparedness is institutionalised and inclusive of older people, as well as enable timely and effective responses. This will be achieved in three ways:
- Establishing a Global Emergency Fund (GEF) that will enable HelpAge to respond immediately to impending and immediate disaster situations
- Building an evidence base for better recognition and coverage of older people and their families in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and humanitarian responses
- Strengthening the capacity of Asia-Pacific regional network members on humanitarian preparedness and response.
More information in the link below.
Organizations and focal points
Implementing Organization(s)
Focal points
Partners
