 Excellencies, honourable guests, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, good morning, good afternoon and good evening to all present today in our pop-off room and at ITU headquarters and to all of you who are following us remotely. I'm Max Jacobson-Gonzales and I will be your master of ceremonies today as well as the moderator for our special panel discussion. On behalf of the elected officials of the International Telecommunication Union, Mr. Houlin-Jean, Secretary-General, Mr. Malcolm Johnson, Deputy Secretary-General, Mr. Mario Manevich, Director of the Radio Communication Bureau, Mr. Chesa Blee, Director of the Telecommunications Standardisation Bureau and Ms. Doreen Bogdan-Martin of the Telecommunication Development Bureau, a big thank you for joining us from around the world to celebrate World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, WTIST 2022. World Telecommunication Information Society Day has been celebrated annually every year since 1969 and it's to mark the founding of ITU and the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention 157 years ago in 1865. WTIST 2022 puts the spotlight on digital technologies for older persons and healthy ageing, reflecting a demographic trend of the 21st century and in support of the UN decade of healthy ageing. To start the celebrations we'd like to present a short video that we've prepared for you on this very important topic and the impact of digital technology may have on aging populations worldwide. Thank you. Connectivity is becoming ever more important at every stage of life in every part of our lives. Ageing has emerged as a defining trend of the 21st century. The International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations Specialised Agency for Information and Communication Technologies, promotes digital inclusion for all. New and emerging technologies can help the world's ageing population stay connected with friends and family, continue living fulfilling lives and remain valuable members of our communities. By building smarter cities, combating age-based discrimination, ensuring financial inclusion of older persons and empowering millions of caregivers worldwide, we can ensure that older persons benefit from digital transformation. This Telecommunication and Information Society Day reminds us to make the world's accelerating digital transformation available and accessible to everyone. In support of the UN decade of healthy ageing, let us together ensure digital technologies empower older persons and enable healthy ageing. Dear ladies and gentlemen, we will now move on with today's program starting with the United Nations Secretary-General's message which he has kindly shared with us, which I will read for you now and which is also being displayed on screen. Dear ladies and gentlemen, we will now move on with today's program starting with the United Nations Secretary-General's message which he has kindly shared with us, which I will read for you now and which is also being displayed on screen. On this World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, we focus on digital technologies for older people and healthy ageing. From building smarter cities to combating age-based discrimination at the workplace, ensuring financial inclusion, safeguarding independence and supporting millions of caregivers across the world, information technology has vast potential to improve the lives of older people and their families and communities. But to make the most of opportunities presented by 5G, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, digital health and other technologies, we must dramatically improve accessibility and inclusivity. Nearly half of humanity still has no access to the internet. We must connect everyone everywhere by 2030. Because leaving no one behind means leaving no one offline. At the same time, we must take action to prevent and reduce the dangers of information technology including the spread of misinformation and the exploitation of personal data. This is the vision of my roadmap for digital cooperation, to embrace the promise of digital technology while protecting people from its perils. I commend the International Telecommunication Union for its vital work narrowing the digital divide, setting standards and connecting people wherever they are, whatever their means. On World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, let us commit to working together to ensure that technology is equitable, safe and affordable for all people at all ages. We wish to thank the United Nations Secretary General Mr Guterres for his official message celebrating the WTISD together with us. And now, we would like to play you a short video from the Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanum-Gabreyes. World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is an opportunity to highlight the huge potential for digital technologies to improve our lives. This year, we are drawing attention to the many benefits of digital technologies for older persons. These tools can help older people connect with families and friends, stay well informed and maintain their health and well-being. The challenge is to make sure that all older people can access these technologies. And they don't become another reason that some people are left behind. WHA is proud to partner with the ITU to realise the power of technology for healthy ageing and a healthier world. And it's my great pleasure to invite Mr Hulingiao, the ITU Secretary-General, to the lectern to deliver his welcoming remarks. Thank you. Excellencies, Ministers, Ambassadors, Head of UN agencies, Leaders of NGOs, dear panelists, dear participants, ladies and gentlemen. It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this panel making and marking the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2022. Let me start by thanking the UN Secretary-General for his statement and for reaffirming the urgent need to connect people of all ages by 2030. I would also like to acknowledge the video message issued by the Director-General of the World Health Organization in which Dr. Tedros highlighted the challenge of giving older persons access to transformative digital technologies. That is what brings us today together. Equitable access to digital technologies isn't just a moral responsibility. It is essential for global prosperity and sustainability. This includes more than one billion people aged 60 years or older at the center of these years' celebrations. This group of population, which is growing larger and larger, has greatly contributed to the social and economic achievements of our time. With time passing, they are now facing new opportunities and challenges that deserve our care and help. I'm very pleased that ITU members have decided to focus their efforts on older persons this year. It's the first in the history of this day, and it could not have come at a better time. For more than two years now, lives have been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. For older people, even more so than the rest of the population. Digital technologies have been a real lifeline. ITU has built on this moment to raise the profile of the digital challenges and opportunities facing aging population. Most notably by producing a range of resources such as tour kits, training courses and reports. We are also developing key international standards like the recently approved standard for accessible telehealth systems and services developed jointly with WHO. This is all part of ITU's contribution to the UN Decade of Health Aging and our commitment to ensuring that everyone everywhere can equally and equitably make use of digital technologies. The global multi-stakeholder platform offered by the WISIS Forum also plays an important role in this effort. From its special track on ICTs and older persons to the WISIS Forum healthy aging innovation price to the WISIS multi-stakeholder alliance on ICTs and older persons. I trust that we will continue to see the same level of engagement in supporting digital inclusion for people of all ages at our World Telecommunication Development Conference which will be held in Kigali very soon in June and later in September at our greener potential conference to be held in Bucharest, Romania. The stakes are high, close to 3 billion people are still unconnected. The most vulnerable populations are the most at risk of being left offline, including people aged 60 years old and older whose number we are double by the middle of this century. To talk about these challenges and opportunities, we are honored to be joined by an outstanding panelist including Her Excellency, Mrs. Ursula Ousu-Ekufo, Minister for Communications and Digitalization of Ghana and Dr. Susanna Jakob, WHO Deputy Director General and Dr. Jenny Birod, Secret General of International Federation on Aging. I would like to just appreciate the great effort by Dr. Jenna who make a long way from Canada to Geneva just to join this event. On this day together, let's send a strong signal that older persons have a huge contribution to make to the digital society and economy. Let us reaffirm the need to break cycle of exclusion and strengthen ICT development. Let this message be heard far and wide. I look forward to our conversation and wish you a happy world telecommunication and information society day 2022. I'm pleased to see that events like this are being organized around the world by our member states and our partners. My sincere thanks to all of them for celebrating this day and helping our old people take full advantage of ICT. I wish all senior citizens a happy, healthy life empowered by the benefits of digital technologies. Thank you very much. Thank you very much Secretary General for your opening remarks, highlighting the need to bridge the digital divide and provide equitable access for all, including older persons. It's now time to welcome our distinguished panelists that are with us today to discuss the theme, this year's theme of digital technology for older persons and healthy aging. So without further ado, I would like to introduce you to Dr. Susanna Jakab who is the deputy director of the World Health Organization and we are particularly grateful to you for joining us today as we know that this is a very busy period for all of you at WHO with the World Health Assembly about to begin on the 22nd of May. So please extend our thanks to the WHO director general for his video message and welcome and thank you very much for being here on the panel session. So I will start off with the first question for you. I'd like to ask you, COVID-19 and multiple global challenges have slowed the health process that countries have committed to in the coming years. What is WHO's strategy for accelerating progress that is inclusive of older persons and what role does digital innovation play in this process? Thank you very much and good morning, good afternoon, good evening, Mr. Zhao excellence his colleagues, friends, ladies and gentlemen, first of all happy birthday to ITU and many happy returns of the day on the occasion of the World Telecommunication and Society Day. Let me also start by emphasizing that it's wonderful to be here in a face to face meeting and thanks to Mr. Zhao for inviting us, inviting WHO and also for selecting this very important topic as the topic of the World Telecommunication and Society Day today. So back to your question, Mr. Moderator. Yes, indeed, digital technologies play a crucial role in building inclusive societies. Our world now is confronted with multiple global challenges, pandemics, climate change, war and inequality. As a result, countries are falling behind on their sustainable development goals. Just to mention for universal health coverage, we are progressing at one fourth of the pace needed to meet the health-related sustainable development goals by 2030. On the bright side, however, in the 21st century, our world is experiencing the two most significant historical changes ever experienced in the last 100 years. We live in a digital world and our population is aging. These two remarkable trends have profound implications on the society, but they also offer unprecedented opportunities for sustainable development. Today, half of the world lacks access to essential health services. According to the last Universal Health Coverage Report in the European countries, one in 10 older persons experience unmet health or social care needs due to the costs. Also, the unmet care needs vary by income levels. Older persons with low household incomes are more likely to experience unmet health and social needs. COVID-19 disproportionately affected older people and the pandemic has revealed that no country is fully prepared for health emergencies. In the WHO Global Pulse Survey, 50% or more of the countries reported disruptions across all services for older people due to the COVID-19 pandemic. WHO's agenda for the next five years envisages doubling the rate of country's progress towards universal health coverage targets and health related SDGs, inclusive of older people. In January 2022, our Director General outlined five priorities for the recovery and renewal commitments, which will be further discussed next week at the World Health Assembly. One issue to emphasize is that harnessing the power of digital technologies was highlighted as a critical enablers to achieve our three main goals. One is to shift the care paradigm towards promoting health and well-being. The second one is to reorient health systems towards primary health care. And the third one is to strengthen the systems for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response at all the levels. In recent years, WHO has harnessed the potential of digital technologies and produced practical digital tools to support the countries. Just very briefly mentioned three. WHO launched an emerging program in partnership with ITU, which is a tool for self-management and care. Secondly, to support the countries in providing better services for older people, we launched an integrated care for older people handbook application in eight languages as a reference training tool. And finally, to encourage digital innovations, WHO has also been working with ITU in organizing the WSIS Forum special track on ICT for older people and healthy aging innovation price. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed, Dr. Zerner and Jakob. And now I would like to welcome her Excellency, Ms. Ursula Ousua-Kufl, who is the Minister of Communication and Digitalization for Ghana, and who is joining us virtually. Ms. Ursula Ousua-Kufl has championed bridging the digital divide and has closely been involved in a number of ITU-led initiatives and programs for which we're very grateful. Ghana is one of the good case examples of digital inclusion, in particular, including older persons and in digital policies. So Ursula Ousua-Kufl, are you there with us? Yes, you are. I can see. Fantastic. I wanted to ask you, could you please share with us the story of Ghana's national aging policy and the role of ICTs in its implementation? Thank you, Chair, Secretary-General, Directors of the ITU. WHO and the UN and fellow panelists. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and a happy World Telecommunications and Information Society Day. It's a real pleasure to be part of this panel. And I must congratulate the ITU for highlighting the need to include people of all ages, including our aged populations in the policies and programs that we roll up, particularly to promote digital inclusion. In Ghana, we've been fostering digital inclusion with the development of a national aging policy since 2010. And the goal of the policies to achieve the overall socioeconomic and cultural integration of older persons into mainstream society, to enable them as far as practicable, participate fully in the national development process. As we see the breakdown of traditional family units with more urbanization, we need to provide our aging populations around the country with another alternative safety net. And we found that technology, as has been stated earlier, provides a very useful bridge to enable them to connect, to provide for their healthcare, and to provide for us to continue to benefit from the wealth of experience that they have. Our government believes that older persons are entitled to retain their personal autonomy and particularly have access to food, water, shelter, clothing, healthcare, education, training, work, and other income-generating activities and live in a decent and safe environment. We want them to continue to participate in the affairs of society and pursue their own personal development and even capture their experiences for learning and teaching the younger generation. Without technology, it would be difficult for us to continue to tap into this wealth of knowledge that they have. And the barriers that urbanization living far from each other have brought to all of us, make it imperative that we also utilize the tools at our disposal to bridge those gaps. We're using technology to implement the national aging policy through acquiring an integrated national data system and building the database to improve information accessibility and social interventions for all, including the agent. We're implementing a Ghana card initiative which has been managed by the National Identification Authority to provide a complete value-added integrated multi-sectoral and multi-purpose national ID system through the innovative use and application of ICTs to facilitate the social, economic and political development of Ghana. Integrating existing databases with this national ID system. And that includes the social security and national insurance trust data which is being integrated into our ID system to simplify the process of verifying and authenticating users identity and to ensure rapid treatment of pension-related files. And to give us an accurate depiction of those who are actually eligible for pensions and those who are within the aging bracket as well. Our Health Insurance Authority is also collaborating with the National Identification Authority to make it possible for all residents in Ghana to use one card for healthcare access. And it is also being accepted for all financial transactions as well as we re-register all SIM cards to improve our data sets in that regard as well. These digital technologies make it easier for us to determine and have the empirical evidence of the number of the agent. Make it easier for us to plan and for the distribution of resources and social amenities to them as well. So this is how we're using technology to include the agent and gather the proper data on them. We're also working on giving them the digital skills that they need to be able to engage with digital platforms that are being set up and extending connectivity to all parts of a country to enable them to have real access to the digital tools that are available to them. And we're seeing increasingly many of our agent populations engaging through social media as well to connect with their families and friends, make new ones and have another life outside the workplace on retirement. So this in a nutshell is what we're doing with our agent policy. And we're also going to set up a council on aging to implement this national agent policy which was set up in 2010. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Minister. Excellent initiative there. And now we turn to Ms. Mai Lin Ka who is Senior Vice President and General Manager for Japan Asia Pacific of Amgen. Amgen is committed to unlocking the potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative human therapeutics. Ms. Ka, welcome and thank you for joining us to represent the private sector in particular the biotechnology companies in this high level panel. My first question to you is how can digital technology and innovation positively impact healthcare outcomes for patients and caregivers? Thank you. Let me thank the International Telecommunications Union for inviting me to join you today to mark this really important occasion, the World Telecommunications and Information Society Day. Congratulations also the ITU on its 157th anniversary. I went online and I found out that this is the oldest union of its kind formed back in the 1800s around telegraph communications. So a little piece of information I didn't know before and very important it is as well. So I'm delighted and honoured to be here representing the private sector and in our capacity as a member of the Global Coalition on Aging. Digital health and data are now almost at our fingertips. When it comes to predicting and preventing health conditions something very important to my industry and our company. This data, this technology sits on everything that we touch almost on a daily basis. Computers, servers, it's in databases that are routinely connected and stored everywhere all the time. Now we've talked quite a bit about the world and how much it's changed in the last couple of years but not so long ago, imagine the idea of scanning a QR code to announce our arrival at a local cafe or flashing our vaccine status before entering a restaurant. This would have been unthinkable but we do it routinely now and that data is captured and shared and we also have the capabilities to give us alerts around when we've been in close contact with someone who might have been infected with COVID. So the technology is really powerful. So how do we harness this technology? From our perspective, how healthcare is delivered can also undergo tremendous change. In the US alone, the growth of telehealth has steered out to 38 times as of February, 2021. The volume of consultation since before COVID, 38 times picking at almost 80% of pre-COVID volumes by April, 2020. Our industry and the private sector more broadly are quick to respond to the challenges of our pandemic. We leverage technology nearly overnight at the onset of COVID and throughout to ensure that we would continue to serve our customers. Scientific exchange where we utilize webinars and zooms to engage with healthcare professionals increased between 300 and 3,250% in 2020 compared to 2019. And further doctors adopted telemedicine to ensure that they could see their patients. It was a capability. We saw as years away, it became a reality within weeks and days. And I'd like to share with you a couple of examples. When I watched the video shown at the beginning of the session, it made me smile because it really reminded me of my parents. Like many of us, my parents are aging and over time, I've become increasingly involved with their health and wellness. My parents, while relatively fit and well, are directly benefiting from this rise in digital technology. My mum, like many, many women her age has osteoporosis and she receives a text message prompt for her to visit her doctor for her regular osteoporosis injections. Results of her bone density scans can be uploaded to a health app so that we can track and see her improvements over time. She also tracks a myriad of other health markers including her daily exercise activity because it's important that she stays mobile and does resistance training. As for my dad, like many Asian elderly men, he suffers from diabetes. He tracks his cardiovascular health and blood sugar data which can be sent to his doctors for monitoring, connecting him in ways that was only possible by physically getting the car, driving across town and visiting the clinic. So when we talk about access, when we talk about removing barriers, these two examples are really real. And for me, it's interesting to see how we, my sister and I, we've become the ones that are really pushing for and nagging my parents to do the things that they need to do to look after their health. Let me share with you also from a company and an industry level as well. We've been actively exploring the application of mobile health, information technology, wearable devices, telemedicine and other new technologies to support patients. We've supported implementation of an innovative telemedicine project to enable patients discharged from hospital with high cholesterol on cholesterol treatments to refill their prescriptions through an online platform. And while I use myself and my own company as an example, I want to acknowledge that across our industry almost all companies like ours are investing in health technology to deliver better outcomes for patients. So technology can help patients start therapy, stay on therapy, track their health and wellness. It supports healthcare. It provides ways to address health needs and enables access to services even when health expertise is at a distance. Now, we often talk about the empowered patient. And for many, many years, especially in managing elderly patients with chronic diseases, it feels as if we were looking for an elusive unicorn. But technology and communications is enabling this to happen at a fast pace and a grand scale. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed, Mylena. That's great. And now I would like to turn to Dr. Jane Barrett who has joined us from Canada today and she also has a lovely Australian accent. So just to confuse issues, I'm also Australian as well, so I'm a bit biased. But I wanted to thank you very much for being with us in person to celebrate this important day. The International Federation on Aging, the IFA, was a leading member of the Civil Society Movement that championed the United Nations principles for older people in 1999, amongst other things of course. And now my question for you is, digital inclusion strategies, while critically important, are not easy to implement. What are the key principles that governments, policymakers and all stakeholders, including the private sector, should consider to ensure the reduction of social isolation and loneliness amongst older people? Thank you. And thank you very much. First and foremost, before I answer that very complicated question, I would like to thank very much ITU, Mr. Zhao, Excellencies, distinguished persons and colleagues from around the world. This is a day to celebrate, not only because of this birthday, but particularly because the focus is on older people. Digital technology is for, with, about older people and most importantly, healthy aging. I do want to step back just a moment and say that as a backdrop, the UN decade of healthy aging 2021 to 2030 is, forms, one of our principles for today. It talks about global collaboration. It talks about alignment with the last 10 years of SDGs. But most importantly, it talks about bringing together government, civil society, international agencies, professionals, academia, the media, the private sector to improve the lives of older people. We talk about digital technologies and digitalisation and integration. But without the collaboration and partnership of all of those stakeholders that I've just mentioned, it's not going to happen. Digital technologies and information are a cross-cutting theme and impacts the outcomes of the decade actions. And these actions are long-term care, integrated care of older people, age-friendly environments, and combating ageism. And Dr Jacobs did mention ICOPE, Integrated Care of Older People. And I see in the International Federation sees that technologies, digital technologies are a cross-cutting theme. They're almost the thread through which positive change can occur around the world with those connections and partnerships that I first mentioned. In our mind, there are three fundamental principles. They are prevention, access, and equity. If we look at prevention to begin with and the previous speaker from ANGEN mentioned it very well in terms of the capabilities of technology in prevention and monitoring, and the importance of technology in data collection and data collection being evidence that will actually inform policy development that is effective. Digital technologies throughout life is a key pillar of expanded prevention strategies, but it needs investment from member states. But it also needs investment from civil society and industry and agencies such as ITU. And it's a central component in our minds of comprehensive public health strategies to improve universal health coverage. The second principle is about barriers, removing barriers to access for appropriate digital technologies throughout life, to ensure all people are protected and no one is left behind, but it goes beyond connections. You know, we talk connections in the context of technology, but we know very little about how the connections happen and whether being connected is sufficient in this world. We talked a lot about social isolation and loneliness and mental health and anxiety and depression within the pandemic time of which we're still in. But in fact, all of those words, all of those feelings of depression, the diagnosis were happening well before the pandemic. They have exposed some of the brutal realities of social isolation, but a tablet is not going to mean that social isolation doesn't exist. We have to do better in understanding how to apply those technologies and the impact of the technology, because perhaps the technology is not what we need to do. Perhaps it's that discussion across a table as I had with Mr. Zhao this morning. So it's this balance between understanding the applicability of technologies when it comes to person to person, but also using the power of technology in prevention and also equity and access. And that's equity and access to assessments, treatment, management, monitoring, making that connection between iCope and the long-term care framework of the decade of healthy aging. And finally, the third principle, reducing equities in timely, appropriate and affordable access to technology. So what I've talked about, I've given you the backdrop to why the International Federation on Aging feels that it's so important to be here today, to celebrate, but also to give the message that we're in the second year of the decade of healthy aging, which is aligned with the SDGs the last 10 years, underpinned by the critical actions of protecting and respecting the rights of older people. I also mentioned protection access equity as the three foundation principles that we use when we're thinking of and enacting digital technologies. But I now also want to turn to, while we recognize and celebrate this day and recognize population aging, we want to also acknowledge the launch of the first global report on assistive technology. The acronym is great, with 10 key actionable recommendations on improving access to assistive technology for every child. Why? Because if those children have the opportunity to live in an enabling environment, they will have the opportunity to grow older. And that's what we have to do. What is our life course approach and implementation to digital decades? Let us not divide up our population. You know, this is our opportunity to positively disrupt and implement a life course approach. For the 240 million children with disabilities in the world, technology and assistive technology and devices are often the first step for childhood development, access to education, participation in sports and civic life, and getting ready for employment like any other children. Let me put a different word in that. For the 2.1 billion older people by 2050, the world is still open to them to access education, to participate in sports and civic life, and to get ready for their third and fourth career and their contribution to society. Thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Zau, to be with you today. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. That was wonderful. Now, I would like to ask a second question to you, Suzanne and Jack. Basically, we've heard a lot about health coverage here. I wanted to ask you, given that the world's population is aging, there's no doubt about that. In your view, what role should digital technology play in improving universal health coverage for older people? Thank you very much for this very complex question. And as you say, population aging is good. It's going ahead. And it's a sign of progress. So that is very good. For the first time in the history, most people can expect to live into their 60s and beyond. However, the fact that older people today are experiencing poorer health than their parents is less encouraging. In the coming years, all the countries can and should prepare for the upcoming reality. Of the demographic shift by adopting digital solutions to promote healthy aging and to organize equitable health care that is responsive to all their people's needs. The UN decade on healthy aging, to which Dr. Barrett also referred to, declared by the World Health Assembly and the UN General Assembly in 2020 as a WCW, led collaboration to improve the lives of older people, their families and their communities, provides an opportunity to accelerate the implementation of these digital technologies. The provision of integrated and person-centered primary health care for older people is key to achieving universal health coverage. We must shift the paradigm from a disease-specific approach to a person-centered approach in primary health care. Older people should be offered care and support and support based on their needs and not on age, determined by methods of person-centered assessment recommended by the WHO Integrated Care for Older People Guidelines. Health care services and other interventions to promote healthy aging are valuable only if they reach the people who need them and are used properly and sustainably. Improving universal health coverage for older people requires substantial and concrete progress in three main areas. First, health care. First, providing all older persons with access to services. Secondly, providing the full spectrum of essential quality health and social care services for older people. And thirdly, protecting older people from the overwhelming financial consequences of paying for their health. And I'd like to underline this last one. Digital technologies play an important role in supporting health systems, including the local communities. Digital technologies have been used by countries during the COVID-19 pandemic to close the care gap. Since older people were shielded at home and identified as vulnerable to severe outcomes, digital technologies were deployed to help deliver care and mitigate social isolation. With the help of technology, immediately after the outbreak of COVID-19, many countries initiated teleeducation, telediagnosis and teleconsultation as well as internet-based drug prescription and delivery. WHO advocated for telemedicine as a way to provide health care for patients in need and to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 caused by travel to hospitals. However, the question is, are older adults who need health care as well-prepared as possible for this rapid change? Evidence suggests that older adults are less digitally connected than younger adults. And accelerated digitalization has further exacerbated these inequalities, since many older persons have been unable to access essential goods and services, such as vaccination appointment, registrations online, pensions, food and medication during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the fact that many governments did not pay attention to the digital skills of the older adults. As a result, there has been a huge disparity in telemedicine and other services provided to older people. Therefore, the digital inclusion of older people should be at the core of future innovations. This is why this panel discussion, Mr. Secretary General, is so important today. In the context of universal health coverage, it is important to keep in mind that the use of digital technologies to expand UHC is a means to an end. Our focus on the mechanisms to ensure that older people can access services without financial burden will be absolutely crucial. So to conclude, Mr. Moderator, universal health coverage for older people is an affordable dream. The advancement towards universal health coverage is both technically possible and economically feasible. And it can be accelerated with the support of digital innovations even for low resource settings, but political commitment is required to make this a reality. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. So last but certainly not least, I would like to welcome Justin Darbyshire from HelpAge International. HelpAge International is an international NGO that helps older people claim their rights, challenge discrimination and overcome poverty so that they can lead dignified, secure, active and healthy lives. Justin has been waiting very patiently to give us his contribution here. So I'd like to ask you, Justin, who is at most risk of being left behind as digital technologies and innovations are developed and increasingly being mainstreamed into health and care service delivery and why? Well, thank you very much for hosting this event and for the focus on older people and population aging. And thank you very much to my fellow panelists for some very thought-provoking comments. What we're seeing at HelpAge International is that in advances in digital technology, it is low-income households, rural communities, women, people with disabilities and those that speak non-majority languages who are being left behind. Worryingly, our experience is that the digital divide is exacerbating pre-existing equity issues. This may change in the coming decades as future older people are more highly educated and have more life-call experience with digital technology. But at the moment, particularly in lower and middle-income countries, equity and inclusion is a big concern for us. Those with low incomes, those in rural areas and older women in particular are not having the access they need to support their requirements. The common barriers that we're experiencing are literacy, digital literacy, accessibility languages and access to the technology, especially for those who often live with out-electricity or no available Wi-Fi. We're also seeing huge issues with media literacy, particularly leading to the spread of disinformation, which we saw with information around the COVID-19 vaccine. Our recent report by our partner HelpAge India found that only 4% of older people in India use the Internet. We've done further reports looking at different parts of Asia and the analysis of survey data from the International Telecommunications Union suggested that less than 10% of older people will have access to the Internet in Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Thailand. Even in tech-savvy, high-income countries such as Singapore, fewer than half the older people surveyed were comfortable using technologies that are easily available, such as having video conversations with family or scanning QR codes. We're also seeing that the gender divide is very clear. Women of all ages in lower and middle-income countries are 20% less than men, likely the men to earn a smartphone. There is an opportunity here with investment, with the right policies for social connection, telehealth and telecare, and improving to improve income security, improve health and give greater access to such things as universal social pension. With telecare and telehealth, we've heard today real innovative solutions to extending quality care services, but these need to be included within universal health coverage and they need to be properly supported, or they will only widen the equity gaps. Without investment, without age-friendly policies that tackle exclusion and ageism, the digital divide will further increase inequality, particularly for those with low incomes, those in rural areas and older women. The lessons that we've learned with our partners and network members at HelpEdge International is that you need to engage diverse older people in the research, the data and the design and evaluation of digital tech and ICT for health. That you need to train healthcare staff and community workers on ageism. And that you need to take intergenerational approaches that focus on creating inclusive communities for all ages. Thank you very much for the time today. Thank you very much indeed, Justin. We'll come back to you shortly. Now, I'd like to turn to Miss Mylin-Cart and you mentioned about the fact that technology was helping to make the tracking of disease like osteoporosis and diabetes a lot easier and not necessarily have to rely on going to the doctors and travel miles for that. But I wanted to bring up the topic of the resilience of our healthcare systems. I think that the media is constantly covering how stretched they are particularly in these times of health crisis and I wanted to ask you, what is the role of technology in building resilience of our healthcare systems and how can we harness information and technology to improve the resilience of our healthcare systems? Thanks for the question and before I answer, let me clarify. It's actually a New Zealand accent that you're hearing but I'm always happy to be included with my Australian brothers and sisters. We're close neighbours, absolutely. Thank you. That's right. You might be able to hear the clip vows when I say fish. Fish and chips, absolutely. All right, let me answer your question. At a system level, the use of new technologies like artificial intelligence and predictive analytics can provide really very powerful information that can help our healthcare systems and deliver resiliency. It can provide an early warning to who in our population is at risk. For instance, for hip fractures, for cardiovascular disease and for cancers. Now, our current healthcare system is designed to rapidly and effectively fix that which is broken. But the digital revolution can allow us to predict who is at risk of disease and prevent that disease from arising in the first place. For example, a person most likely to be at risk of osteoporosis is a woman over the age of 70. And yet in many countries, four out of five women with osteoporosis have never been diagnosed and are therefore not treated. A solution to this problem could be identifying the right population using the right data, information that will help a society not just identify who is at risk but who is not receiving or seeking the right care. How much better is it to stop a break than fix it? And while we're using osteoporosis as an example, meta-analysis of studies show that women had a nearly three-fold increase in mortality risk one year after a hip fracture. Older adults have a five to eight times higher risk of dying within the first three months of a hip fracture compared to those without a hip fracture. Now, from a system perspective, we can reduce costs, address population health, and deliver sustainable long-term value healthcare ecosystems. But for a patient, consider the pain, the decreased social engagement, increased dependence, and a worse quality of life, particularly in our most vulnerable, the elderly. So, however, that data and the ability to apply digital technologies is often impacted by structural issues and data privacy. Now, this is not to say that privacy and other matters should be abandoned. Absolutely not. They should be understood and accommodated to allow us to find ways to better predict who is on the path to poor health and how we can collectively offer support and direction to that person who needs it to prevent their future ill health. As a company, we now support a growing number of healthy aging initiatives, big and small, at the personal and the health system level to enable healthy aging. Many of these examples utilise digital technology and communications. Like many in the private sector, we're working through partnerships to utilise technology to identify individuals at risk to help steer their choices towards positive preventive steps, thereby reducing the overall burden on the local population. And to conclude, I have a call to action and I'm speaking on behalf of me personally and patients like my mum and dad. We are most definitely in the data, the information age, but also as populations, we're going through a major demographic shift and we are aging. The benefits of digital technologies should be applied not only to those who have grown up with technology, but also to those who are older in ways that meet their needs and circumstances. The United Nations Decade of Healthy Aging is, at its core, about helping people grow older well. And through that, the decade urges us, and I quote, strive to harness technological, scientific, medical, including new treatments, assistive technologies and digital innovations that can foster healthy aging. We advocate that the use of digital technology can play a key role in moving from the current reactive break and fix healthcare model to a proactive and innovative public health approach and to predict and help prevent the impact of serious diseases from recurring. This is true resiliency. No one group or sector can achieve this alone. Working together across all sectors will be critical to this endeavour. We look forward to playing our part as well. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. I stand corrected. Our Antipodean continued there. So I wanted to now turn the floor back to Dr Jay Barrett. And I wanted to ask you in terms of return on investment, what is the ROI for society in designing tailored technology specifically for older adults? What is the return on investment for society in designing tailored technology specifically for older adults? And so what degree is ageism, personal, interpersonal, institutional, a barrier to changing the future for generations of older people? Thank you very much, Mr. Moderator. And I did want to just return just momentarily to my colleague Justin Dubbush's presentation statement. And the data, and this is real life data from Help Age India and Help Age International. And it is once again a reminder of the lack of connection, digital connection, for a large population of older people. And I think it's easier to skip over that those numbers. But for any one person that's not connected, that may mean that they're actually not getting their pension or their income security if they're not able to be reached. So it can be a life and death situation. It can be survival for older people. And that made me start thinking about how do we encourage investment in digital technologies and older people? Is it just going to be that area that we talk about but governments don't invest in? I think it's a real question that we need to ask ourselves. What is the return on investment for digital technologies and older people? And how can we encourage governments to invest in that infrastructure? We often talk about return on investment from an economic perspective. And we can certainly do that when we talk about designing tailored technologies for greater efficiencies in healthcare systems, as my colleague earlier has talked about. Yet I want to suggest today that the resulting effect of appropriate technologies is an environment that enables an older person to do what they have reason to value. And that phrase, how do we create an environment that enables an older person to do what they have reason to value is exactly the same as those that are in middle age, those that are earlier. So technology has the capacity and capability to create environments that enable. And yet it's not only technologies that will help achieve that. Mr. Moderator talked about ageism. And I do want to touch on that because I want to put to you that technology is not a panacea, but it is one of the most important tools that we can use to combat ageism in the world today. Ageism is the way that we think, feel and act about age and aging. And it is associated, and we know it's associated from the World Report on ageism, which was launched last year. We know that it's related to poorer physical and mental health, increased social isolation and loneliness, greater financial insecurity, decreased quality of life, and premature death. So what about if we think about technology as an enabler, not dissimilar to the other decade enablers, such as voice and engagement, and help age use voice and engagement, gathering evidence around the real life experience as well as the people. Technology is an enabler. And it's also an enabler in terms of connecting stakeholders. And that's another one of the decade enablers. The third and fourth is that for this to be a reality, it requires leadership and capacity building. And that's one of the benefits of being here today across sector, across disciplines. But we also need data and a call to those that are listening either here and around the world. We do not collect age disaggregated data very well at all. If at all in some countries. And without that, we can't develop policies. It doesn't happen. And without evidence, there is no investment. And so we can continue talking about the importance of digital technologies and older people. But the rubber will need to hit the road somewhere. Transformation is a generational driver of change. And it requires policies and investments that address technology inequality based on age. And it goes beyond just developing the hardware to understand how to affect the success to transmit knowledge and skills and enhance empathy. And I applaud industry and governments and civil society that work with older people to develop technologies. But it cannot stop there. We have to actually have long term studies, longitudinal data, looking at the impact of certain technologies on X and Y. Because that's the future. That is transformational change. Not digital technologies. The intergenerational interventions, one of the key areas of action in the world report to combat ages and can contribute to mutual understanding and cooperation of different generations. And we've seen that in many other public health interventions of our time. And vaccination is only one. The intergenerational communication and collective understanding of the power of technology will help drive change. So we, each and every one of us, we are members of a global community. And we're here today because we want to be part of cultural change that requires us to continually challenge our own opinions, the status quo of not only ITU but IFA and AMGEN and governments around the world. Unless we challenge the status quo, we will not drive this transformational change. And finally, we need to experiment and we need to get comfortable with failure because it's only through failure that we'll actually understand how to scale up the power of digital technologies and connect and apply technologies to improve the quality of life of older people whether they're living in Gimli in the heart of Manitoba or in Nepal, in Australia all over the world. Thank you very much. Thank you very much indeed, Jane. Wise words indeed. In case you're wondering about the minister of Ghana, unfortunately she was called away and is unable to carry on with the panel discussion, but that doesn't mean to say that we don't appreciate very much her involvement and we thank you very much indeed for having joined us when she did. So it's now my turn to ask Justin Derbyshire to address our final question. Actually, it seems to have gone very quickly indeed. Justin, if you're there I'd like to ask you what would you like to see more of to address the gaps and ensure that older people, particularly those in low resource settings are able to enjoy the benefits that ICT can bring? Thank you very much again for time and for questions. We really need governments and others to look actively considering the diverse older people in the population and what barriers they may face in accessing digital technology and services. Jane and others have highlighted ageism is a key barrier both internalized ageism and also across the society. From our experience at HelpAge working with communities and older people in Vietnam, we've seen how when older people have been, we've trialed using different health screening apps with them we've experienced three key barriers older people self-ageism ageism within the community and poor design of technology due to lack of engagement with older people in the process. Obviously that ageism in the community we've seen frequent comments that older people wouldn't be able to use the app they cannot use the app because they're too old and when we approached older people we saw themselves say resistance to using the technology saying they couldn't use the app before they even practice using it and then when we took people into different focus groups and went through it with the volunteers and older people it was clear that the different apps that we were trialing with them that the introduction to the app was very difficult because it hadn't been designed in a user-friendly way. Older people or volunteers hadn't been engaged and we're really seeing that a lot more effort has to go into including older people in the design of the digital technology that's focusing them and to think about the diversity there is in older people in different groups of older people and the different needs they have in Moldova we've seen for us the impact a positive impact of intergenerational programs we've seen how our work with UNFPA during COVID has really seen an increase in uptake and an understanding of technology we've seen work in HelpAge India we've seen the citizen clubs and self-help groups engaging the youth engaging members of different generations and having a positive development not just for the understanding of technology for older people but also for the relationships and understanding within those and communities. As I mentioned earlier, the inclusion of telehealth and telecare into universal basic health services coupled with community health staff and volunteers is being trained further on some of the challenges is essential those lessons that we've learned about engaging older people in research in data in design in the evaluation digital tech is essential training healthcare staff and community workers on ageism and taking an intergenerational approach that focuses on inclusive communities is a necessity without investment and age friendly policies that are inclusive of older people that tackle ageism the digital divide will just further increase in quality over the coming decades. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. A variety of opinions expressed here we've heard very much that there are as Justin mentioned common barriers to literacy, digital literacy, accessibility languages and access to technology and that older people's actually self-ageism and ageism within the communities and poor design of apps due to the lack of engagement with older people they need to be really involved in the process otherwise they really won't adopt them Jane mentioned better understanding the impacts of technology the capacity building but primarily I think the message that came through from her was the need for data the lack of age disaggregated data means no policy equals no investment and technology is a transformational driver we do need equity and access Minister Ursula said that urbanization to defeat urbanization to combat urbanization we need to utilize the tools they were using all sorts of initiatives including a gander card initiative a value added which was value added integrating data simplifying identifying pensioners and it was a one-stop shop really for all transactions and enabling them to get their pensions and health insurance etc I think that's important we need to simplify things as much as possible Milen told us and reminded us of how if we've been talking about QR code scanning a little while ago we probably would have raised our eyebrows and said oh we're not going to do that but of course we've all got totally used to it and also discussing our vaccine status etc and talked very personally about her aging parents which I very much relate to and tracking their osteoporosis and diabetes and not having to travel miles to get an assessment and also about access and removing barriers and that tech can help patients and I think we've heard a fair amount here as well obviously from Susanna here and we heard about multiple global challenges the pandemics the climate change war and inequality the countries are falling behind on their sustainable development goals and that for universal health coverage we're actually going very very slowly indeed at one fourth of the pace needed to meet health related sustainable development goals she also mentioned about digital technologies being used by countries during the COVID-19 pandemic to close the care gap and since older people were shielded at home they identified as vulnerable to severe outcomes digital technologies were deployed to help deliver care and to mitigate social isolation but one thing that struck me was that she said universal health coverage for older people is an affordable dream and I think we need to think about that very carefully that it can be accelerated with the support of digital innovation even for low resource settings but political commitment is required to make sure that it is a real reality so I would like to thank you all for some great perceptions and perspectives on this very important topic apologies to the interpreters for speaking so quickly on those but before I wrap up I would like to give the floor to the ITU Secretary General Mr Houlin Zhao who will give us some closing remarks thank you very much Mr Zhao thank you very much Max dear colleagues Frank, I found that this panel is very good reaching contents and opinions and discussions but also I think this is the right moment that we all come together to review the situation of our society what we have done so far with the aged people and what challenges we might have and what kind of future we would like to see so this is a really excellent panel and particularly those discussions like General mentioned that Justine's statistics give us a lot of good indications where we are for example those figures like Justine mentioned that in India is less than 4% of old people use our ICT and also another statistic from Justine that the old ladies or the ladies in old age use ICTs 20% less than the men so this kind of things is really you know very very very alarming to us and also very good for us to see what we can do and what we should do and of course Justine at the end also mentioned that we need a lot of APPs but then we found that the older people may not like to use APPs so this kind of things how can we help them to increase their digital skills to use these APPs so that is also something we need to do and of course Malinkar from from a patient point of view give us a lot of advices how can we work together to improve the situation and of course Justine mentioned that investment to this business is also alarming and because up to now we have not guaranteed any important project to this kind of business we have to work together to mobilize resources to work on this morning that I found that our industries are quite interested to working in this field and they like to you know to provide a lot of solutions applications to help our older people so there is also potential of the benefits for them and for business for them so that there are a lot of opportunities I think that today's discussion really give us very good you know opportunities to understand this of course Susanna from WHO give us a lot of useful information what WHO has done because they are the competent agency to take care of the health for all the ages and now we are concentrating on the aged people and she give us a lot of useful information and also from Ghana kindly join us from beginning to now and then she give us information about what the government, at least her government doing for this this is very good Max our competent moderators already give you some kind of summaries I don't need to repeat those information and let me just say a few words to close this panel discussion so once again thank you all very much for sharing this day and your experiences with us my special thanks to our panelists and all participants here in Geneva and online as we heard today people of all ages have a huge contribution to make to society provided they are given access to digital technology now here I also heard over this discussion three keywords that applicable affordable and I say equitable so this kind of words I think we should not forget so we how you know we can use this technologies and I think that hold it to the people to feel safe when they go online so let's remember that close to three billion people worldwide are still offline often living in poor areas or ones that are difficult to reach the UN Secretary General has called us to spare no effort in bringing everybody everywhere online by 2030 now it's May 2022 to bring this unconnected online by 2030 it's not easy last week I talked with him in Vienna we still talk about this one because I was challenged by people 2019 at IT Telecom so Secretary General you talked about not leave anybody behind it's wonderful can you please tell me by when it's difficult for me to answer of course I'm not ready to answer that by which year but then they ask me at the press conference how about 2030 that is UN's goal to reach sustainable development 2030 seems to be reasonable but I found it's not easy because to bring those unconnected half population who are living in the poor area remote area no profit for industry no profit for investment and we worked so far so hard to reach half population connected less than 10 years we connected the other 20 half population by 2030 that is the challenge I said yes let's try that is 2019 but Secretary General of Korea General Assembly of United Nations 2020 I would like to invite everybody to work together to bring everybody connected with affordable services so I told him Secretary General you call this let's try it but it's not easy it's not easy so this is something that we really have to work hard but there's us when I talk to the member states if we try to work together where everybody work together maybe we can achieve this goal I totally agree if we work together we try our best for example we are not talking about ICT for aged people we work hard for aged people and our NGOs like IFA and just things they all work very hard so if we all work together we will be able to do that so let's try our best so connecting the unconnected is the challenge of our time it's the very essence of this day and ITU's mission so ITU has been celebrating World Telecommunication and Information Society since 1969 without interruption for last 53 years our members and partners have marked this anniversary and used it to promote ICT technologies and services for all so I like to express my sincere appreciation to all those who have contributed to the success of this day and events organized at the national and international level so thank you all for your support, dedication and commitment I wish all senior citizens a long, happy and healthy life empowered by the benefit of ICTs I thank you very much Thank you very much indeed Mr. Jiang and let me thank again all our distinguished speakers who have so eloquently put the spotlight on the need to together ensure that digital technologies are beneficial for older persons and healthy aging having such diverse stakeholders speak today demonstrates why it was timely to highlight this theme this year Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues and friends this brings us to the close of our World Telecommunication and Information Society day 2022 celebration and we invite you all to visit our dedicated website for additional insights and to join our call for action at www.itu.int forward slash wtist and on behalf of the ITU I would like to thank all of you for joining us today both to those who joined us here in Geneva and those joining us remotely all that's left for me to do is to thank our interpreters our captioners our technical crew and content team and everyone who has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to bring this event to you today from me, Max Jacobson Gonzalez and the whole of ITU I wish you all an excellent World Telecommunication and a great digital year ahead thank you