Purpose To use policy experience on E-Government and the Grey Divide to improve governance. Methods Mixed method approach was used including literature review, information related to Roger's Innovation Diffusion Theory, cross walk analysis and international policy experience to fairly share citizen and state responsibility. Results and Discussion E-government is defined as the use of ICTs to more effectively and efficiently deliver government services to citizens (United Nations, 2024). The primary characteristics of democratic governments as stated by Abraham Lincoln: A government of the people, by the people and for the people. However, E-government renders this social institution faceless and devoid of social interaction. A proportion of the population is excluded, thereby creating the digital divide or those that benefit from the digital age and those who do not (IEEE, No Date.). The “Grey Digital Divide” is due to barriers of perception, access and use resulting in the exclusion of older citizens (Millward, 2003) from the benefits of digital participation arising from reasons beyond the usual factors related to disadvantage such as income although there are intersectionalities. Implementing generic and targeted policies for older citizens is critical because they are important beneficiaries of major policies such as pensions and health. A major difference in expectations can cause exclusion. Governments expect digitally competent citizens that can find information and access services and programs shifting responsibility to the user. Older citizens expect the right to government services regardless of their digital competences. This results in policy failure and inequitable results. There is the misguided optimism that with time the whole population will be digitally savvy, not recognizing that technology advances much faster than population adoption. While younger people can use prescriptive policies, older people forge personal technological pathways. According to the theory of innovation diffusion, the factors that would accelerate adoption among older people are: Relative advantage or the acceptance that the new idea or product is better than the one that is being replaced; Compatibility of the innovation with their values, experiences and needs; Complexity or how difficult the innovation is to understand and use, Trialability or the extent and opportunity to try and experiment before adoption; and Observability or the extent to which there are tangible results. For many older people, E-government fails all these factors. Unless there are wrap around policies to address these multiple needs, older people will be excluded. Successful policy experiences can be shared. At the international level the United Nations suggests that to meet the priority of serving the whole public, a hybrid system is recommended, ensuring inclusion (UN DESA, 2022). At the national level, each of the five factors for adoption can be addressed. Relative advantage is addressed by automatic enrolment and pre-populated tax forms as in Finland. Compatibility of values is the principle of the Silver Surfer project in Luxembourg that uses older volunteers to train their peers in digital technology. To diminish complexity, in Romania, public libraries provide free e-skills learning paced for older people. When older people are part of the design and testing process of products and services as in the UK, trialability is enhanced. In Slovenia, a mobile banking vehicle provides face-to-face support to older persons in using their mobile phones and other digital devices to perform online banking services where they experience tangible results and observability is achieved. E-government must be equitable and inclusive, not only efficient.

The UN global digital compact ensures that digital technologies are used responsibly and for the benefit of all. Digital literacy is essential because: 1. Modern society increasingly relies on e-work, e-commerce, e-government, digital communication and e-social networks used by digitally literate citizens. 2. Quality of life depends on being able to choose, buy and operate digital devices for daily living. 3. Those unfamiliar with the rapidly evolving technology are victims of disinformation, scams or exclusion. According to Statistics Canada, 25% of Canadians are either non-users or basic users. Those in digital poverty include the poor, unemployed, poorly educated, immigrants, older workers and retired Canadians. There is a cost to society if the entire population is not digitally literate. Those that are not literate reduce the average population digital literacy skill level, which would slow progress reliant on digital-rich economic and social endeavours. Digital equity is essential.

Daily life includes use of digital technology and learning to use new technologies. The average daily screen use of an average American is 7 hours and 4 minutes. New technologies are introduced very rapidly, but there are no means to ensure digital literacy for all. People can learn about new technologies at school or work, but digital poor do not have the same advantages. Learning about new technologies is dependent on familiarity with earlier technologies, key boarding, screen use and digital logic skills in addition to access to information and knowledge through the internet. How will they learn to use Artificial intelligence- AI? Currently, self-directed learning and problem based questions to a knowledgeable person are the primary strategies for gaining digital literacy. This situation is worsened because of the need for expensive digital equipment, service contracts for internet services, remote learning, on-line tutorials and high reliance on peers rather than teachers.  

A multisectoral approach is necessary.  Governments can work to ensure that strong digital infrastructure is available at reasonable cost to residents of in the whole country. The private sector providing products and services much include education on how to use them and continuous tech support, not just provide a manual. Places where the digital poor may gather such as libraries, museums, cultural centres and banks should provide digital literacy courses and assistance to their clients. Education professionals must teach digital skills to the digital poor to be capable of  learning new digital skills  on their own.

• Unless older people are part of the solution, societies cannot achieve their environmental policy goals. ​​
• Innovative global policies are essential  to consult, develop and implement policies for people all over the world to work individually and collectively to protect  the environment.

The existential threat of climate change can draw living generations together through lifelong learning for a cohesive response. People in their later years must understand environmental impacts on themselves and future generations. A useful model of environmental learning must work well for every generation. This policy paper has two objectives based on the value of combining the theory of Nature Relatedness and Nudge theory for a model of environmental learning. First, to examine if the theory of Nature Relatedness which measures the individual’s relationship with nature is appropriate. It categorizes the relationship into four categories: passive, aware, responsive, and active based on observable characteristics of knowledge seeking, favourable attitudes, personal behaviour, and social action. Second, to investigate if learning based on Nudge theory can advance the relationship with nature to result in behavioural change. This model provides a useful framework to design environmental learning by all generations.

Can society beneft from an ageing population? This book explains how current and future generations can beneft from the longevity dividend in the coming decades, using multidisciplinary and international evidence.

How? It depends on the strategic choices of countries. And if they act before the opportunity closes. Growing life expectancy will increase the active years of later life by 25 years or more, resulting in more than a quarter of the population aged over 65 years in many countries. The social, economic and cultural impacts of this phenomenon are massive as the population shifts from a youthful population to one with a large older population. This population structure includes a greater number of adults with knowledge and skills than before that can contribute to society compared to fewer adults living shorter lives. Their contributions can be economically and socially productive by increasing growth, reducing costs as well as advancing social progress. The longevity dividend is realized because the total contributions of societal and economic value increase because there are more citizens contributing during longer lives. The longevity dividend is the windfall gain in economic growth and social progress gained during this once only population shift. Society retains this gain and then continues growth from the peak benefitting future generations. The two ways to increase the dividend are to increase the total contributions that beneft society and to improve the quality of these contributions over the lifetime of citizens through lifelong learning. Increased contributions during the prolonged lives of the entire population result in a productive society. Informed countries will make deliberate choices to gain a greater longevity dividend during this one-time opportunity to beneft from greater life expectancy.

Lifelong learning is essential to support optimum development, cope with life challenges, improve healthy autonomy and contribute to a just, sustainable, and prosperous society. The value of the legal right to lifelong learning is not well understood, tested, or applied, as lifelong learning is rarely extended to all people till the end of life. Education or learning was formally accepted as a human right under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. Together with UNESCO Recommendation against Discrimination in Education (1960), these two international agreements ensure access, relevance, and equity of lifelong learning. Possible reasons for low compliance and slow implementation of lifelong learning to the end of life are discussed. Canada’s efforts can serve as a model for lifelong learning policies for later life because, as a federated country, it requires national and provincial laws to work together to achieve the same desired outcome for lifelong learning across thirteen different provinces and territories. Furthermore, for the first time, the 2021 Canadian census provided detailed data for the population aged 65–100 years, and it supports evidence-based policy development regarding for whom, when, what, when, where, and how lifelong learning outcomes can be provided nationally. A  combination of need and capacity is a better measure than determining eligibility by age 65–100 years, and the quality of learning should be based on responsiveness to specific needs and its relevance to learners in the last four decades of life. The needs for knowledge range from life management, personal growth, societal contributions, and legacy for the future. Learning options should be continuous, encourage individual choice, and rely on geragogy. To be equitable, learning in later life should be delivered in formal, nonformal, or informal means in residential and institutional settings.

Introductory paragraph:

A meaningful life through active aging

Since you only live once, it makes sense to make life the best it can be.  The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests the strategy of active aging to achieve this goal.  

Intergenerational learning is concerned with the learning that occurs between people of different generations.  It connects generations through learning by interaction between people. In this paper, we will extend intergenerational learning to include the interaction with past generations as an idea which enriches our current lives. More concretely, we will explore the influence of previous family generations, even after their deaths, to inform our own life worlds, serially, through theirs. We had previously written about a grandmother as well as a mother in private texts. The concept of biographical learning, introduced by Peter Alheit, has been central in adult education research and will constitute a framework for analysis in this paper as it concerns biographies. Through our narrative approach we extended “learning within the lifespan” to beyond it by linking lifetimes to retrospectively examine the effects of historical context on individual experience of aging meaningful to successive generations. From research on older adults learning, we know that the interest in history, in ancestry and for family members tends to increase with age. Based on a general interest for ancestors, we wanted to understand more about a) why we chose to write about a particular relative, b) how this person has influenced our own lives and our view of family history, and c) what this could add to current theories about intergenerational learning, older adults learning and biographical learning. The Alheit framework will guide an analysis of the two stories in order to explore the biographies as a combination of autobiography and biography spanning generations, but the perspective of the story is that of the author even though the content is about the (grand)mother. This holds the potential to deepen the understanding of the meaning of previous lives in our own.