On 29 May 2017 “Global Plan of Action on the Public Health Response to Dementia 2017- 2025” was unanimously adopted by 194 countries of WHO during the 70th World Health Assembly (WHA 70) in Geneva Switzerland.
Outline of the Global Action Plan
The plan supports the urgent message that countries need to develop practical and ambitious national strategies. Alzheimer Europe (AE) and people living with dementia were consulted on the development of the plan, which includes a set of seven global targets:
- Dementia as a public health priority
- Dementia Awareness and Friendliness
- Dementia risk reduction
- Dementia diagnosis, treatment, care and support
- Support for dementia carers
- Information systems for dementia
- Dementia research and innovation.
The plan calls on all governments to meet these targets. Currently it is estimated that 8.7 million people live with dementia in Europe and that world-wide 47.5 people live with dementia. It is a major cause of disability and dependency among older people world-wide and with the ageing demographic this figure is expected to increase further.
Further Information
A progress report submitted to WHO’s Governing Bodies in 2025 (EB156/36) indicated that the world falls drastically short of meeting the global action plan’s objectives, with especially low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) struggling to respond to the growing dementia challenges. This is of particular concern insofar as most people with dementia live, and will continue to live, in LMICs. As a result, WHO Member States decided in May 2025 to:
- Extend the global action plan until 2031 (WHA A78/4, p.4), in line with the intersectoral global action plan on epilepsy and other neurological disorders 2022-2031
- Request the Director-General to submit a progress report on the implementation of this decision to the Eightieth World Health Assembly in 2027 and the Eighty-second World Health Assembly in 2029, as part of the reporting on WHO’s comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2030.
More information on the WHO's actions on dementia can be found at: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/global-action-plan-on-the-public-health-response-to-dementia-2017---2025