Ageing with Dignity: A Global Call for Local Action in the MENA Region. Reflections from the Vatican Symposium and the 2025 Global Declaration on Ageing

In May 2025, a landmark event took place in the heart of Vatican City that united voices across faiths, disciplines, and continents around a common cause: ensuring dignity in ageing. Convened under the shadow of the late Pope Francis and organised by the Pontifical Academy for Life, AARP, and the Muslim Council of Elders, the Vatican Symposium on Global Ageing brought together global leaders, researchers, and spiritual figures to reimagine the future of care and inclusion for older people.

Among the invited participants was Professor Shereen Hussein, founder of the MENARAH Network, who carried a vital message: the realities and needs of older adults in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are both urgent and unique. As populations in the region age at an unprecedented pace, many countries are grappling with how to ensure older people are not left behind in policy, urban planning, or public discourse.

(Dr Myechia Minter-Jordan Chief Executive Officer of AARP and Professor Shereen Hussein, Founder and Director of the MENARAH Network)

From Cultural Respect to Structural Support

While older adults in the MENA region often enjoy symbolic reverence, Professor Hussein stressed that this cultural respect doesn’t always translate into real-world inclusion or autonomy. Especially for older women, protective norms can unintentionally restrict their agency and access to services. As one older woman in Cairo poignantly put it: “I can’t leave my home because the pavement is too high.” This everyday example highlights a deeper issue, societal design that fails to account for ageing bodies and minds.

This gap between symbolic respect and systemic support was echoed in the Vatican City Declaration on Ageing, which emphasised the need to “mainstream ageing across all public policies”; from healthcare and housing to education, employment, and infrastructure.

A Declaration Rooted in Faith and Solidarity

• The intrinsic dignity of every person, regardless of age.
• The urgency of equitable and sustainable care systems, especially in ageing societies.
• The importance of recognising and supporting both family and paid care workers, who often operate under exploitative conditions.
• The need to include older people in decision-making and social participation, not just in care settings but across society.

(H.E Judge Mohamed Abdel-Salam, Muslim Council for the Elders, Dr Myechia Minter-Jordan Chief Executive Officer of AARP and S.E. Mons Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life)

The Vatican City Declaration, signed jointly by the Pontifical Academy for Life, AARP, and the Muslim Council of Elders, is unprecedented in its faith-based and rights-based framing. It asserts ageing as not merely a demographic challenge, but as a moral imperative for global solidarity. The Declaration affirms:

These principles resonate deeply with MENARAH’s ongoing work. Our research across MENA has shown that older adults frequently fall through policy cracks — not due to neglect, but due to structural inattention and fragmented services.

The MENA Region: At a Crossroads

Unlike many high-income nations, MENA countries are experiencing population ageing before achieving widespread economic security or robust welfare states. This poses both a challenge and an opportunity: governments and civil society must act now to build age-inclusive institutions and infrastructure, without the luxury of decades-long adaptation.

MENARAH’s research has highlighted several regional priorities:

• Integrating ageing into urban design and transport.
• Supporting community-based long-term care, especially where institutional care is culturally limited or underdeveloped.
• Investing in the paid care workforce, which is often informal, under-regulated, and gendered.
• Combating ageism, especially where it intersects with gender and rural/urban divides.

From the Vatican to MENARAH: A Shared Commitment

As Professor Hussein noted in her reflections, the Vatican symposium was more than a ceremonial gathering. It was a call to reframe ageing not as a burden but as a shared opportunity — a chance to honour memory, empower care, and shape systems that serve all ages.

MENARAH takes this call to heart. Across research, policy engagement, and community collaboration, we are committed to advancing ageing justice in the region. The Vatican City Declaration serves as both a compass and a catalyst, reminding us that dignity in ageing is not negotiable — it is a universal right.

As the MENARAH Network continues its work, we invite our partners, governments, and communities to consider:
How can we ensure that the elderly in our region are not only respected but supported, heard, and empowered?