In the Palace of Serbia, marking the International day of Families, on 15 May a panel discussion was organised entitled “Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity: old and new challenges”. This year special emphasis was put on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goal 13. The panel discussion was organised by the Cabinet of the Minister without portfolio responsible for demographics and population policy, Commissioner for Protection of Equality, the Red Cross of Serbia and UNFPA. The objective of the panel discussion was to emphasise the importance of family and intergenerational solidarity, to underline the challenges and highlight examples of good practice.

The Minister, Prof Dr Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, among other things highlighted the examples of good practice implemented through different projects in local communities and the need for communities to recognise contribution of all generations and the need to help each generation fulfil its full potential. Marija Rakovic of UNFPA spoke about the importance of intergenerational cooperation for the development of a society and Emila Spasojevic representing the Commissioner for Protection of Equality talked about the data from the research study the Commissioner did with the Red Cross of Serbia that represents an important contribution to understanding the status of older people in our society.

Natasa Todorovic, psychologist and expert in this area spoke on behalf of the Red Cross of Serbia emphasising that for development of a solidary society it is important to promote positive examples as much as possible so that persons demonstrating solidarity become our heroes. Of course, what we need to have in mind is that every time we discriminate against someone based on their older age, we are discriminating against ourselves in the future and that by discriminating against younger people we forget the way we ourselves were as young persons. The society of solidarity is a society with understanding, tolerance and responsibility of all generations. As for the climate change and their consequences, it is important to have two things in mind: older people can be a group at risk during a crisis, but they are also a resource for the society, because of their knowledge that can be invaluable during preparedness for crises. So it is necessary to find a good balance in order to efficiently respond to crises.