|
| ||||||
MEDIA CENTER Gender, Work, and Family Expert Ragui Assaad Joins Council NEW YORK CITY and CAIRO (8 March 2005) — The Population Council announced the appointment of Ragui Assaad as the regional director for programs and research in West Asia and North Africa. He will oversee the organization’s activities in Egypt and other Arab countries as well as in Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. Assaad, 46, succeeds Barbara Ibrahim, who stepped down earlier this year after nearly 14 years as regional director. After a brief posting at Georgetown University in Washington, Ibrahim will return to Cairo to continue promoting philanthropy and public service. Assaad, an Egyptian-American, first became familiar with Population Council’s work as a teenager in Cairo. In 1983, he was awarded a Middle East Award by the Council. This fellowship launched his academic career in the social sciences by financing his first year of graduate school at Cornell University. Over the past 14 years, he has collaborated with Council staff in Cairo and New York on a number of projects relating to youth livelihoods, child labor, women’s paid work, and the empowerment of adolescent girls. He is currently a professor at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. His recent research focuses on labor market analysis, gender inequity in the labor market, and work and family issues in the Middle East and North Africa. His studies examine gender inequities in economic restructuring, poverty and poverty alleviation strategies, the informal economy, community development, and urban planning in the developing world. Since 1994, Assaad has been a research fellow of the Economic Research Forum for the Arab Countries, Iran, and Turkey, an independent regional network of economists, policymakers, and business professionals. The holder of a B.Sc. in physics and an M.Sc. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, Assaad also earned a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from Cornell University. “We are pleased to have Dr. Assaad on board,” said Anrudh Jain, acting vice president of the Population Council’s International Programs Division. “His proven leadership capabilities, his vast research experience in Egypt and other countries in the region, and his commitment to improving capacities of regional researchers and policy analysts will be an asset to the Council and to all those who benefit from the Council’s work.” Assaad will be based in the Population Council’s Cairo office beginning in July 2005. He will direct a diverse portfolio of research and programs in eight countries. The organization’s activities in the region are aimed at building leadership and research capacity, improving the quality of care for reproductive health and family planning services, reducing poverty, enhancing civil participation, and supporting transitions to adulthood. In Egypt, the Council is involved in efforts to improve obstetric practices, explore causes for slow fertility decline, and enhance the lives of rural adolescent girls. Council researchers in Pakistan are working to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality and to build institutional and professional capacities in population research. Population Council staff have launched a major research capacity-building initiative in Sudan, which will strengthen policy planning and health service provision for the country’s most underserved population groups. In Iran, Assaad and his staff will continue projects to strengthen the capacity of civil society and to develop evidence-based youth policies. Assaad is strongly committed to strengthening the Population Council’s gender, family, and development and reproductive health efforts and to support projects on the transitions to adulthood, the nuptiality transition in the region, youth and women’s livelihoods, and reproductive health and fertility services. He will pursue opportunities to advance the Council’s regional agenda of creating a policy and institutional environment conducive to guide and support the decisions of youth and their families regarding schooling, marriage, reproductive health, fertility, and employment as they negotiate their transitions to adulthood. See Also
|
