A two member delegation from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) was scheduled to arrive in Grenada yesterday for a one week visit during which they will assist the Ministry of Social Development in conducting its needs assessment for the implementation of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing. The team, which includes the Director of UNDESA, Ms. Rosemary Lane and Ms. Karoline Schmidt, Director of the UNECLAC based in Trinidad, while in Grenada will hold meetings with the Minister for Social Development the Hon. Yolande Bain-Horsford, Permanent Secretaries in the ministries of Social Development, Health, Agriculture, Finance and the Ministry of Carriacou and Petite Martinique Affairs as well as other stakeholders. On Tuesday the delegation will hold discussions with the Committee for the Standard for the Care and Protection of the Elderly-Grenada Bureau of Standards. On Wednesday and Thursday the UN officials will visit the different Homes for the Aged in Grenada and Carriacou. On the final day of the visit, Geriatric Caregivers will be exposed to further training which the officials will facilitate at the National Stadium from 9:00 a.m. As enshrined in the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, the Second World Assembly on Ageing agreed on three priority directions for action on ageing in the twenty-first century , they include, older persons and development; advancing health and well-being into old age; and ensuring enabling and supportive environments. It also agreed on 18 areas of concern and established 239 recommendations for action. The visit of the UN delegation is considered timely and important by the Ministry of Social Development who has listed the care for the elderly as one of its priorities and only last week observed, “World Elderly Abuse Awareness Day”, following the establishment of a desk for the elderly. Presently there are over fifty (50) trained persons enlisted in the roving caregivers’ programme that provides assistance to elderly persons in the private homes. Source: Ministry of Social Development