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The Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing adopted by the World Assembly
on Ageing in 1982, and endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in its
Resolution 37/51 recommend ‘inter alia’ the promotion of training
and research, as well as the exchange of information and knowledge in order to
help countries meet the challenges of population ageing and to provide an international
basis for social policies.
As a result, the United Nations Economic and Social Council, in its Resolution
1987/41 recommended to the Secretary General the establishment of the International
Institute on Ageing (INIA) in Malta. On the 9th October 1987, the United Nations
signed an official agreement with the Government of Malta to establish this
International Institute as an autonomous body under the auspices of the United
Nations. In fact, the Institute was inaugurated on the 15th April 1988 by the
United Nations Secretary-General, H.E.Mr.Javier Perez de Cuellar.
The Institute operates under the guidance of an International Board consisting
of nine members appointed by the UN Secretary General with due regard to the
principle of equitable geographical distribution.
In accordance with the mandates given by the United Nations Economic and Social
Council, INIA’s main objective is to help developing countries especially
to prepare themselves to meet the challenges of population ageing through capacity
building and the training of personnel working in the field of ageing and those
who are interested in working in this field and to facilitate, in a practical
way, the implementation of the The Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing.
For several months, INIA harboured the idea of setting up satellite centres
in various parts of the world aimed at helping it in its mandate at capacity
building in the various fields of ageing. This matter was discussed during INIA’s
Board Meeting held in Madrid on the 7th April 2002 chaired by Mr.Nitin Desai,
the then United Nations Under-Secretary General on the occasion of the Second
World Conference on Ageing. The importance of such centres was agreed upon.
In view of the three training programmes in Gerontology successfully carried
out in Singapore for the ASEAN countries between 2000-2002 as a result of the
collaboration agreement between the International Institute on Ageing, United
Nations – Malta (INIA), and the Singapore Action Group of Elders (SAGE)
signed on Friday 15th September 2000, the Board of Directors decided that the
Singapore Action Group of Elders (SAGE) would be INIA’s first Satellite
Centre for the ten ASEAN countries namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Mynmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The Satellite
Centre was formally inaugurated on the 4th September 2002.
Please click here for BOLD, UN INIA's quarterly international gerontological publication. |
