A new network titled the Middle East and North Africa Research on Healthy Ageing (MENARAH) will be launched through a virtual panel event on Tuesday 29 September 2020 from 10.00-12.00 (UK time).
Led by Professor Shereen Hussein, Associate Director of the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU), the MENARAH network is an international research group aiming to raise awareness of ageing within the specific economic and socio-cultural structures of the MENA region. The MENARAH network will become the first research group to explore healthy ageing in this region.
MENARAH aims to help improve the lives and wellbeing of older people and their informal carers in the region. The MENARAH team is keen to collaborate with fellow researchers and authorities, offer expert advice to stakeholders and provide a consultancy service to enable an effective response to population ageing.
The virtual launch event will showcase the work of MENARAH, and feature discussions with an international expert panel including:
- Shereen Hussein, Professor of Health and Care Policy Evaluation, University of Kent, UK
- Professor Hoda Rashad, Director of the Social Research Centre, American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
- Dr Sara Salman, Population Affairs, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN/ESCWA), Beirut, Lebanon
- Professor Marvin Formosa, Director of the United Nations International Institute on Ageing, Valletta, Malta
- Dr Christopher Mikton, Demographic Change and Healthy Ageing, World Health Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland
Furthermore, there will be a recorded testimonial from Professor Victor Valcour, Executive Director, Global Brain Health Institute, San Francisco, USA. A Q&A with the panel will follow.
Professor Hussein said: ‘The Middle East and North Africa region is set to experience a boom in its elderly population in the coming decades, so this is a vital time to raise awareness and advocate the need for further research and change to support healthy ageing. By launching the MENARAH network we are making partnership opportunities more accessible, to connect researchers, policymakers, older people and their informal carers, educators and practitioners and make a difference. We hope the visibility of the network supports bids for more research funding, to actively develop solutions.’
The MENARAH network virtual launch event, hosted by KMTV, takes place online on Tuesday 29 September 2020 from 10.00-12.00. It is free to register and open to all interested parties.