Good morning, good afternon, good evening and welcome to this high-level dialogue on ICTs and digital technologies for healthy ageing.
When it comes to technology, our world is moving fast; but unfortunately, not everyone has been able to keep up. Today we shine a spotlight on all the people who are 60 years old or over. There are already 1 billion of them across the world, and they are a global force to be reckoned with.
Older persons have a huge contribution to make to society, provided they are given acces to digital technologies, can afford them, find these technologies attractive, know how to use them, trust them and feel empowered and safe when they go online.
And that is where ITU comes into play. As the UN specialized agency for ICTs, we are committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of age, gender, or ability, can equally and equitably make use of digital technologies. That includes improving accessibility and ensuring universal design, by developing standards, for example—like the recently approved standard for accessible telehealth systems and services developed jointly by ITU and WHO as a result of increased telehealth reliance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Older persons face a lot of challenges, from age-based discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere, to financial inclusion. But we can only fight what we know. So, I am very pleased that this year’s World Telecommunication and Information Society Day on 17 May is dedicated for the first time to “Digital Technologies for Older Persons and Healthy Ageing”.
I hope you will be able to join the day’s celebration to raise awareness of this issue and build momentum behind initiatives promoting healthy ageing in our increasingly digital world. This is an all-year-round effort to promote digital inclusion for all ages, and I encourage all WSIS stakeholders to get engaged at the national, regional and international level. The WSIS Forum is all about collaborating, so this is the chance to make an important contribution towards the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing.
The WSIS Forum has organized an ICTs and Older Persons Track since 2018. Today’s high-level dialogue concludes this week-long track, which brought together more than 550 participants from all over the world. I was pleased to note that women’s participation was 65%. In total, the special track ran a series of 9 workshops—from addressing social isolation and loneliness among older persons through digital interventions, to tech solutions for age-related diseases.
This year, we have also introduced the WSIS Forum Healthy Ageing Innovation Prize, which recognizes how various products, services, and platforms can improve people’s ability to function as they age. And we have launched a WSIS Multi-stakeholder Alliance on ICTs and Older Persons, with working groups in the key areas of design and accessibility, capacity building and education, cybersecurity, and innovation.
There are many opportunities for everyone to contribute. All public and private stakeholders from all sectors must collaborate and cooperate to find appropriate socio-economic solutions towards ensuring active, healthy and happy lives for the older persons, of today and tomorrow.
We have a great panel for you. Many thanks to them for joining us. It will provide us with ideas on how to strengthen exisiting initiatives, frameworks and commitments—and inspire further action worldwide.
I wish you an enjoyabe and fruitful session.
Thank you.