Good afternoon participants and guests, ladies and gentlemen, and my sincere thanks to Nikkei Inc for inviting me to address you today, at this International Forum on the Super Active Aging Challenge.
Ensuring healthy ageing is among the greatest policy challenges that all countries in all regions of the world face – especially low- and middle-income countries.
By 2050 more than one in five people will be over 60 years of age – double what that figure is today.
In many countries, the number of people aged 60 years and older has already overtaken the number of children.
In 2017 the number of people in the South-East Asia Region aged 60 years and older was estimated to be 186 million against a global estimate of 962 million.
By 2050 the number of older people globally is expected to rise to more than 2 billion, which will include around 20% of the Region’s population.
With these shifts come health, social and economic challenges.
Globally and in the Region, concern is growing about how to cope with expected increases in the costs of health and long-term care and the economic implications of there being proportionally fewer younger people of traditional working age.
Such concerns are valid, but present just one side of the ledger.
Ageing populations also bring opportunities – opportunities that the UN “Decade of Healthy Ageing”, launched just last year, very much highlights.
Older people who are experiencing good health and well-being are an important asset to all countries, socially, culturally and economically.
Not only can they participate directly in the formal and informal workforce, but they can contribute through taxes, consumption, social security contributions, cash and property transfers, and volunteer work.
Older people who are experiencing good health and well-being are a high-value resource to their families, younger generations and the community.
Evidence suggests that the cost of caring for older populations need not be high.
Importantly, the health sector alone cannot fulfil the social, cultural, and economic needs of older people.
As the Decade of Healthy Ageing envisages, we all have a role to play – government, civil society and the private sector.
And that role applies to each of the Decade’s four areas of action:
First, creating age-friendly environments.
Second, combatting ageism.
Third, increasing access to good quality integrated care.
And fourth, increasing access to good quality long-term care.
In each of these areas and more, the South-East Asia Region has in recent years made strong progress, guided by its Framework on Healthy Ageing 2018–2022, as well as its Flagship Priority on achieving universal health coverage (UHC) – when all people can access quality health services, without financial hardship.
Within this focus, strengthening and orienting health services towards primary health care is a key priority, reflected in the Region’s recently issued “Declaration on COVID-19 and measures to build back better essential health services to achieve UHC and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals”.
Notably, countries of the Region are moving away from organ and disease-centric approaches to improving the health and well-being of older people, instead focusing on fostering older people’s intrinsic capacity and functional ability.
Several countries of the Region have already begun implementing the Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) framework, which provides evidence-based, comprehensive guidance on how primary health care providers can screen, assess and manage a range of health problems.
The Region has several priorities:
First, health workforce strengthening, with a focus on identifying health workforce gaps and strengths and increasing health workforce education and training.
Second, generating and applying data and evidence to understand people’s needs and to assess and measure the capacity of services and systems to deliver integrated care at the community level.
And third, laying the foundations for long-term care systems in every country, ensuring all older people can access the quality long-term care they may require.
The private sector has many opportunities to contribute.
In many Member States, financial constraints mean that some older people cannot afford assistive devices and technology such as hearing aids.
In such instances, the private sector can be a leading partner, not only to share knowledge, but to invest in the development and production of cost-effective devices that can be accessed by all, regardless of social and economic status.
Through sheer necessity, the COVID-19 response has catalysed an array of telemedicine, m-health and e-health innovations, many of which should outlast the pandemic.
Strong public-private partnerships can help ensure all older people can access such innovations, which could significantly improve health services coverage and treatment adherence among other goods.
Importantly, private health service providers should make concerted efforts to strengthen in-service training to ensure all health workers have adequate skills to meet the changing needs of ageing populations – needs that will continue to grow and evolve.
To effectively confront this challenge, we must remain agile and adaptive, sharing knowledge and best practices on how we can ensure all older people can be and do what they value – today, tomorrow and for many generations to come.
I once again thank Nikkei Inc for convening this event, which is exactly the kind of engagement that the Decade of Healthy Ageing envisions.
I wish this Forum productive deliberations and look forward to our onward journey together, to achieve the future we want for present and coming generations.
Thank you.