WSIS Forum 2022

For the third year in a row, GCOA partnered with ITU and the WSIS Forum to host the WSIS Forum Special Track on ICTs and Older Persons and again host the WSIS Healthy Ageing Innovation Prize in 2022. Throughout the first week of May, GCOA and WSIS organized a series of sessions examining the potential for digital technologies in an aging world, including how they can help combat age-based discrimination in the workplace, achieve healthier aging, build smarter cities, ensure the financial inclusion of older adults, and support millions of caregivers across the world and in digital inclusion across the generations to enable the Decade of Healthy Ageing. GCOA co-organized this special track in collaboration with stakeholders including Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development (CSEND), E-Seniors, UN Agencies -ITU, WHO, UN DESA, and others.

The WSIS Healthy Ageing Innovation Prize recognizes and award the best digital technologies that support healthy and active aging for adults age 60+ in one of five categories:

    • Alzheimer’s and Cognitive Decline
    • Frailty
    • Immunizations
    • Transportation and Mobility
    • Elder Caregiving

The winner, HiNouNou, and 11 finalists were selected by a panel of international judges and announced the first week of June 2022. The winner and finalists receive a cash prize as well as recognition at the WSIS Forum.

Click here to see descriptions and watch video from each of the sessions ICTs and Older Persons track.

Watch Mike Hodin’s interview below on the significance of the WSIS Special Track on ICTs and Older Person in today’s world:

Latest Developments

We keep our members and partners in touch with the most recent updates and opinions in the worldwide dialogue on population longevity and related issues.

Brazil Must Fight Antibiotic Resistance

The threat posed by antimicrobial resistance is urgent and spares no country - including Brazil. According to The Lancet, 63 deaths per 100,000 are associated with AMR in Brazil and Paraguay, a rate that exceeds the average for Latin America and the Caribbean. AMR-associated deaths in Brazil are second only to cardiovascular diseases and cancers.

We Missed 100 Million Adult Vaccines – Here’s How We Get Back on Track

Like other pandemics throughout human history, COVID-19 has caused profound changes that are still rippling through our societies, even as people are understandably eager to move on. In fact, these impacts are all the more dangerous when they are largely ignored or effectively invisible. The decline in adult vaccination may be one of the most significant, as a new report finds that ~100 million doses were missed in 2021 and 2022 alone – reversing global progress towards widespread adult immunisation as a new standard of care in a world of more old than young.

New Analysis Shows Lost Ground on Adult Immunisation During the Pandemic with 100 Million Doses Potentially Missed

New data shared today by GSK, in collaboration with the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science and the Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA), estimate approximately 100 million fewer doses of some adult vaccines (excluding Covid-19 vaccines) were administered in 2021 and 2022 than anticipated, based on the global vaccination adoption trends observed from 2013 to 2020, compounding already low adoption rates pre-pandemic.

Going Beyond Applause: The Potential of Caregiving to Unlock Job Opportunities of the Future

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of caregivers – staff and family who provide care for older and dependent people to carry out activities such as eating or moving - catapulted to the front of our collective conscience. The daily applause for front-line care workers showed a high level of recognition for their incredible work and provided insight into how our health systems must change as our society ages. We need to continue to recognise caregivers as essential to our ageing society.

High-Level Forum on the Silver Economy 2023

Join us for the High-Level Forum on the Silver Economy 2023. Now in its fourth year, the Silver Economy Forum 2023, December 6 and 7, will explore aging at every stage of life, looking at the growing global Silver Economy through a multigenerational lens. Linking to the goals and aspirations of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, SEF 2023 will highlight key themes at the intersection of aging at every age, and the Silver Economy.

Global Coalition on Aging Workshop Calls on G7 Countries to Fund Pull Incentives to Spur Antibiotic Innovation

The Global Coalition on Aging, in partnership with JPMA, today announced the release of its workshop report on the AMR crisis facing G7 countries and the world, “The Value of Pull Incentives in Japan to Encourage Investment in Antibiotic Innovation to Solve the AMR Crisis.” If strong action is not taken to address AMR, we will lose the antibiotics we need to cure infections, which is likely to outpace cancer as a major cause of death, killing an estimated 10 million by 2050.