Empowering older persons to fully participate in the life of society: a budgetary approach to the assessment of the implementation of the madrid international plan of action on ageing directives in Australia

The adoption by the United Nations members of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) in the year 2002 has redefined ‘old age’. Before this historical moment, ageing was categorised as a ‘problem’ that needed to be solved by science and medicine. The MIPAA put back the rights of older persons on the national policy agendas guided by the United Nations Principles for Older Persons – independence, participation, care, self-fulfilment, and dignity. In this study, a model is proposed to provide guidance as to how to facilitate directives of the MIPAA into meaningful policy applications. This main premise of the model is that older persons will only be empowered to participate in the life of society, which is a main goal of the MIPAA, if all their rights as espoused by the United Nations Principles for Older Persons are ensured.