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Message from Rosemary Lane, Acting Focal Point on Ageing and Officer-in-Charge, Social Integration Branch, Division for Social Policy and Development
Luncheon to honor Dr. Alexandre Sidorenko
8 October 2009
Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues:
As you know, this luncheon is being held to honour Alexandre (Sasha) Sidorenko, the focal point on ageing for the UN system for over 20 years, who retired at the end of August. Due to his very recent relocation to another country he very much regrets that he was unable to attend this event.
I had the pleasure to work with Sasha since the early 90s so I am happy to honour him at this luncheon. Sasha joined the United Nations in 1988, in the Ageing Unit of the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs, based in Vienna before the Centre was re-located to New York in 1993. He came to us from Kiev, Ukraine where he had been a Fellow at the Kiev Institute of Gerontology. During his time with the UN he spearheaded the growth and prominence of ageing issues in the international arena, and indeed a transformation in the way older persons are more commonly viewed today – as contributors to society and development.
Sasha oversaw the adoption of the UN Principles on Ageing by the General Assembly in 1991, the International Year of Older Persons in 1999 and most recently, the Second World Assembly in 2002 in Madrid. He was (and still is) well known at the international level for his passionate promotion of ageing issues and the work of the United Nations, and his particular interest in promoting the UN Research Agenda on Ageing and its link to the development of evidence based policy on ageing.
But, on a personal level, leaving aside Sasha’s achievements in the professional arena I want to acknowledge his equally important role as my former supervisor and colleague. Sasha was a boss who treated all is staff as equals – he encouraged and took on board our suggestions and supported me to take on new initiatives and responsibilities – without micromanaging – and I think we can agree – that’s a rare quality in a manager. Sasha did not have a big ego and was happy to share the praise for the work of our unit with all his staff.
When Sasha retired I told him that some of my best memories were working with him in the preparations leading up to the Madrid World Assembly on Ageing – which we did with a very small team. This of course led to a lot of late nights during pre-Assembly negotiations, and on occasion, Sasha being Ukrainian, some sharing of vodka at the end of a long night in the office. This was an exciting time for all of us.
Lest this is begging to sound like a eulogy, I would like to note that Sasha has not disappeared from the international arena of ageing. He was recently made a Global Ambassador on Ageing for the NGO HelpAge International, and awarded a life-long membership of AARP. So I am sure we will be seeing more of him.
At this point we see new issues arising at the international and inter-governmental level on the rights of older persons in the lead up to the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Madrid Plan of Action in 2012. Also, since 2002 there has been more technical assistance work carried out by our Division at the national level to help Member States develop national plans and policies on ageing. I myself have spent the past two years largely working in this area from the Caribbean to Africa and Central Asia. But our human and financial resources are limited and we still continue to struggle to raise the profile of ageing with some of the development agencies in the field. So there is still much work to be done to more fully realize the implementation of the Madrid Plan.
I can assure you that with the retirement of Sasha, our Division remains committed to carrying on his work.
Finally, I would like to thank the NGO Committee on Ageing, the Missions of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Spain and Uruguay, DPI and UNFPA for sponsoring this event today. Our Division has been extremely lucky over the years to have had such an active and committed NGO Committee on Ageing that takes on the huge amount of work and arrangements and financing for this event – which I might add, seems to draw more attendees every year.
Thank you.
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