Towards inclusive age-friendly communities: A scoping review of diversity and representation in global initiatives

While calls for meaningful inclusion of diverse and socially excluded older populations in age-friendly urban planning initiatives have increased, little is known about how these groups are actually involved in shaping such programmes, and what mechanisms are effective in enabling their inclusion. The aim of this article is to present the findings of a scoping review on how effectively age-friendly urban planning includes socially excluded older populations, including the key strategies employed and the challenges and enablers encountered. Searches yielded 10,857 records, and, together with grey literature screening, resulted in Eight studies meeting the inclusion criteria. The review documents a range of participatory approaches, such as co-design workshops, graphic facilitation, advisory panels, peer research and intergenerational collaboration, that aim to involve older adults in meaningful ways. These approaches target promoting trust and empowerment and offer more equitable representation in age-friendly planning. However, despite promising practices, most efforts were limited in scale, short-term in nature and lacked integration into decision-making systems. These initiatives point to the potential of inclusive planning, but with current impacts remaining uneven and limited. We call for more sustained and embedded forms of participation that support rethinking how inclusion is defined, operationalised and structurally supported in age-friendly planning processes.