Methodological guide on friendliness Euskadi Lagunkoia

On 27th and 28th November the Basque Government presented a "Guide for the implementation and use in municipalities", produced by Matia Instituto within the framework of the Euskadi Lagunkoia project.

Euskadi Lagunkoia Sustraietatik is an initiative launched by the Department of Employment and Social Policies of the Basque Government which aims to promote the participation of citizens and the public, private and social sectors to develop a friendly movement in the Basque Country in the promotion of facilitating living environments for the elderly.

"A friendly city for the elderly is an inclusive and accessible urban environment that promotes active ageing". (WHO, 2007)

This project is based on the "Age-friendly Environments Programme" initiative promoted by the World Health Organization. The Age-Friendly Environments movement was born in 2005 at the XVIII World Congress of Gerontology in Rio de Janeiro under the name of Age-Friendly Cities.

The ideologue of this initiative, Dr. Alexandre Kalache, at that time Director of the WHO Ageing and Life Course Programme, launched this programme based on two characteristic trends of contemporary world population: demographic ageing and the process of urbanisation. We live in increasingly aging societies and increasingly urbanized environments, large cities.

This initiative is born from the attempt to respond to these two trends, with the main objective of making the most of the potential offered by older citizens. It seeks to promote a great process of citizen participation led by older people as generators of well-being.

The Guide for the implementation and use in municipalities aims to encourage all the municipalities of the Basque Country to join the movement of friendliness by offering keys and tools for their adhesion. This document has been developed after the implementation work of the programme, carried out by Matia Instituto, in 15 pilot municipalities in the Basque Country.

This pilot project has served to design, analyse and put into practice the methodology and instruments necessary to advance the friendliness of the territories. They are now available to all the municipalities, cities and towns in the Basque Country to serve as support and guidance on the way to improving the quality of life of their residents by promoting a participatory action research process to advance learning together.

Related entries:
Euskadi Lagunkoia - Building an environment for everyone together
Friendliness, active ageing and citizenship