Join us on Nov. 11 for “Healthy ageing and long-term care policies in Asia” with Soonman Kwon

On November 11th, 2025, from 2:00 – 3:30 pm ET, Dr. Soonman Kwon will present a talk entitled “Healthy ageing and long-term care policies in Asia.” This hybrid event is part of the Care Economies in Context Speaker Series, and is co-sponsored by the Asian Institute at University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

Abstract

Many Asian countries face the rapid ageing of their populations, but policies and system for healthy ageing and long-term care have not yet fully developed. This talk provides an overview of the current status and challenges of healthy ageing and long-term care in terms of governance, financing, workforce, and service delivery. Many low- and middle-income countries in Asia experience limited coordination among health care, long-term care and community social services, and coordination mechanisms are challenged by inadequate accountability, misaligned incentives, lack of funding and ineffective allocation.

Bio

Dr. Soonman Kwon is Professor and Former Dean of the School of Public Health, Seoul National University. He was the Chief of the Health Sector Group in the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and is the founding director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Health System and Financing. He received the Excellence in Education award of Seoul National University in 2020. He served as president of the Health Economic Association, Society of Health Policy and Management, Association of Schools of Public Health, and Society of Gerontology in Korea. He is an associate editor (Asia Region Editor) of Health Policy and International Journal of Health Economics and Management. He was the Vice Chair of the National Committee on Long-term Care, a tripartite committee for the decision making on Long-term Care Insurance in Korea. He holds a PhD from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (1993) and taught at the University of Southern California School of Public Policy. He has held visiting positions at Harvard, LSE, Toronto, Tokyo, Peking, and Bremen.

Previous events in this series

Dr. Kwon’s event will be the fifth installment of the Care Economies in Context Speaker Series. Previous events include:

• “Caring for the Caregiver: An Intersectional Analysis of Caregiver Policies in Canada” with Kayla Benjamin and Erica Di Ruggiero
• “Creating the Conditions for Care” with Pat Armstrong
• “Connecting Through Care: Navigating Systemic Challenges and Exploring Immigrant Identities in Ethnocultural Care in Canada” with Izumi Niki
• “Care and Climate Change: A Conceptual Framework” with Dr. Ito Peng and Dr. Shawn Marshall 

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