Who knows about the origins of the age-friendly cities and communities' topics? A critical analysis of the development process by the World Health Organization and a roadmap for an overhaul

In 2007, the World Health Organization launched its ground-breaking publication Global Age-friendly Cities: A Guide in which the widely used eight topics of age-friendly cities and communities. A lot of emphasis was put on the self-proclaimed validation using the Vancouver Protocol with older people and other relevant stakeholders. Contrary to popular belief, the eight topics had not been validated until the year 2020. The lack of transparency surrounding the origins of the age-friendly topics, that were rooted in the North-American elder-friendly literature, has led to substantial consequences, including many failed attempts to validate the topics, many difficulties in developing valid measurement instruments, and robust discussion pieces criticizing these topics, for instance, the lack of consideration of financial aspects, as well as safety and security. In this article, the origins of the age-friendly topics are disclosed in an attempt to reconstruct the development process and the choices made by the people involved though a combination of investigative journalism and document analysis approaches. This piece reveals potential pathways and gaps that need to be addressed in the future overhauls of the age-friendly topics that will soon celebrate its 20th anniversary.