Chair of HelpAge International
Professor Sarah Harper CBE, Supernumerary Fellow and SCR President, Clore Professor of Gerontology and Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, has been elected the next Chair of the international NGO HelpAge International.
Founded in 1983, HelpAge International is a global non-profit organisation that works to improve the lives of older people around the world. Their global network has more than 170 members in more than 90 countries. HelpAge International’s mission is to promote the rights and well-being of older people and to help them live dignified and fulfilling lives. They address the challenges faced by older people, such as poverty, social isolation, and discrimination, as well as advocate for policies and programmes that support the rights of older people and provide support to local organisations and communities working with older people.
Professor Harper is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Royal Anthropology Institute and holds a Royal Society for Public Health Arts and Health Research Award for her research. Sarah has a background in anthropology and population studies and her early research focused on migration and the social implications of demographic change, using a mixed methods approach. Her current research on demographic change addresses two broad questions: the implications of falling fertility and increasing life expectancy, and the interaction of population change with the environment. She was appointed a CBE for services to Demography in 2018.
Her current research on demographic change addresses the impact of falling fertility and increasing life expectancy, with a particular interest in Asia and Africa. Recent research has focused on women’s education and empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa and the impact of this on desired family size, older women’s health in Africa, and European life course trajectories and late life female health. She currently directs two research projects looking at the ageing of farmers in Vietnam and Myanmar. Her latest books include How Population Change will Transform our World (Oxford University Press 2016/2019), Ageing Societies: risk and resilience (Routledge forthcoming), and Global Ageing (Elgar forthcoming). Sarah is working on her next book for Cambridge University Press on Population and Environmental Change. In addition, Sarah is the founding editor of the Journal of Population Ageing and editor of the Handbook of Ageing and Public Policy (Elgar 2014/revised 2024).
Sarah served on the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, which advises the UK Prime Minister on the scientific evidence for strategic policies and frameworks and was the Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Currently, Sarah is Vice-Chair of the UK Research Integrity Office, a Trustee of Health Data Research UK, a Governor of the Pensions Policy Institute, and a Patron of CHASE Africa. She chaired the UK government’s Foresight Review on Ageing Populations (2014-2016) and the Evaluation Board of the UN Active Ageing Index and advised on the Industrial Strategy Healthy Ageing Challenge. She served on the Advisory Board for the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Internationally, Sarah represented the UK on the European Science Academies’ Demographic Change in Europe Panel, served on the Council of Advisors of Population Europe, as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of the Vienna Institute of Demography at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and on the Advisory Board of the World Demographic Association. Sarah represents Oxford on the Ageing and Demography Collaboration of the International Association of Research Universities. Sarah was the first holder of the International Chair in Old Age Financial Security, at the University of Malaya (2009-10) and was an Advisor to the Malaysian Government, Advisor to the Singapore Government’s Third Age Council and as a Specialist Advisor for the European Commission Demographic Change Programme. She served as an International Advisor to the Swedish Academy, European Advisor to the MacArthur Foundation, Advisor on Ageing Issues to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon and was Global Advisor on Ageing Issues for HSBC plc.
Published: 30 July 2024
Explore Univ on social media
