Population Council Research that makes a difference

Population Council Selects Safaa El-Kogali to Be Director of Its West Asia and North Africa Region

CAIRO, EGYPT, and NEW YORK, NY (19 December 2008) — The Population Council has selected Safaa El-Kogali to be director of its West Asia and North Africa region.

A Sudanese national, El-Kogali is an economist who has been working in the development field for more than 16 years. Her experience covers 15 countries across four continents and includes project management, research, and volunteer work. Her emphasis has been primarily on education, poverty, labor markets, and gender issues.

El-Kogali comes to the Population Council from the World Bank where she was a senior economist. During her eight years at the bank, she worked on human development issues, managing programs in Africa and the Middle East and North Africa, including projects in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Iraq, Morocco, Niger, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's of philosophy in development studies from the University of Sussex’s Institute of Development Studies in the United Kingdom.

El-Kogali aims to expand the Council’s reproductive health; HIV and AIDS; and poverty, gender and youth portfolios in the West Asia and North Africa region. She also intends to build new partnerships with local organizations and the private sector.

Based in Cairo, El-Kogali will oversee the Population Council’s regional portfolio of activities, which include:

Assessing the Situation of Displaced Children and Young People in Darfur, Sudan
Council researchers are documenting the educational and life experiences of young people ages 10–14 currently living in camps for internally displaced individuals in Darfur. The goal of this research is to identify measures that make and keep schools safe, as well as factors leading to insecurity in schools that must be addressed. Findings will be disseminated to humanitarian agencies working in Darfur to encourage action to meet immediate educational needs.

Providing New Opportunities to Adolescent Girls in Egypt
The Ishraq (“Enlightenment”) program was created to transform girls’ lives by providing them with safe meeting places, giving them a second chance for education, and helping them acquire the skills to participate in the local economy.

Reducing Infant Deaths in Pakistan
A Population Council project has succeeded in significantly reducing perinatal deaths in Dera Ghazi Khan, a predominantly rural district in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The project addresses multiple factors that contribute to maternal and infant deaths.

---

About the Population Council
The Population Council confronts critical health and development issues—from stopping the spread of HIV to improving reproductive health and ensuring that young people lead full and productive lives. Through biomedical, social science, and public health research in 50 countries, we work with our partners to deliver solutions that lead to more effective policies, programs, and technologies that improve lives around the world. Established in 1952 and headquartered in New York, the Council is a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization governed by an international board of trustees.

###

Media contact
pubinfo@popcouncil.org; +1 212 339 0500