Naju-si, World Health Organization Re-certifies as an 'Age-friendly City'

[Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong] Naju City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Yoon Byung-tae) announced on the 5th that it has successfully re-certified as a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities, the first in the province.

The WHO's 'Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities,' launched in 2006, is an international platform for sharing information and policies on aging society policies to address the issue of population aging.

In the case of Naju City, it joined as an age-friendly city member in October 2019, the first among local governments in the province and the 12th nationwide.

The city submitted the evaluation results of the first implementation plan (2019?2022), consisting of 23 key tasks and 49 indicators across 8 major areas of the age-friendly city international network, and the direction for the second phase (2023?2027) to the WHO last month and received re-certification.

Through re-certification, the city plans to establish a detailed five-year mid- to long-term plan based on the eight major areas of age-friendly city creation and to focus on discovering and promoting age-friendly policies.

The eight major areas are ‘Support for older adults and job opportunities,’ ‘Participation in community activities,’ ‘Communication and information provision,’ ‘Local welfare and health,’ ‘Safety and age-friendly facilities,’ ‘Transportation convenience environment,’ ‘Housing convenience environment,’ and ‘Social respect and inclusion.’

A city official said, “Through this re-certification, we will do our best to promote policies that seniors can feel and improve daily inconveniences in the 8th term of the elected government to realize Naju as an age-friendly city where people want to live for a lifetime in the era of 100 years.”

Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong baekok@asiae.co.kr