A new project: The Age-friendly Balkans Connected Network

Willeke van Staalduinen

What is the project about?

The Age-friendly Balkans Connected Network seeks to (1) form regional knowledge and action eco-systems through further capacity-building in the Western Balkans, and (2) provide regional cities with an instrument for a baseline assessment of the age-friendliness. The Network, its ecosystems and tools, are a resource for making action plans, decision making and implementation concerning age-friendliness, as well as serve as a sustainable past performance in future grant applications.

Learn more about the project details:

The Netherlands and North Macedonia have had a collaboration in this field since 2022, which forms the basis for this proposal. Partners of Mother Teresa University in Skopje (MTU) have asked for joining our efforts: the Institute for Social Activities in Skopje sees the age-friendly agenda and research at THUAS as a logical next step for a better understanding and representation of all subgroups in their ethnically diverse city. Universities in bordering nations, including Kosovo and Albania, have indicated their interest to join efforts during the annual Towards Sustainable Development Conference in Skopje. They called for the existing research and capacity-building efforts at MTU to be extended to other parts of the Western Balkans. This includes Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which joined the network in 2023. It is currently the only member city in the Western Balkans, with Podgorica having plans to join.

What are the objectives of the project?

To build local age-friendly ecosystems in the Western Balkans, by facilitating mutual learning from different contexts.
To translate and cross-culturally validate the AFCCQ-NL and to conduct surveys in the participating cities.

What is the work plan of the project?

Capacity building in The ABC Network takes place through Mutual learning (ML), which is an implicit aspect of participatory research. ML refers to collaboration and knowledge-sharing between actors from similar organisations, or with a common interest from different settings [Robbertson et al. 2014].
National versions of the AFCCQ need to be developed for use in the consortium countries. We follow the steps of the COSMIN protocol (COnsensus-based Standards for selection of health Measurement INstruments).

What are the outcomes of the project?

Formats & procedures for mutual learning visits; Written best practices on cross-cultural research design.
Updated manual for data collection and statistics (English); Top-up questions for consortium partners; Individual quantitative local and joint reports on the age-friendliness of the cities; National versions of the AFCCQ.

Meet the partners of the ABC project:

The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Urban Ageing (coordinator)
AFEdemy
University Mother Teresa, Faculty of Social Science, Skopje
University of Split
University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sciences
University of Montenegro
University of Tirana
University of Tuzla
University of Mostar
University of Prishtina