Sebastiana Zimba Kalula, MBChB (Zambia), MRCP(UK), MMed, MPhil (UCT), deputy-president of ILCSA and acting director of the Institute of Ageing in Africa (IAA), was appointed as the director of ILCSA in October 2007.

Kalula is a physician specialist in Geriatric Medicine. After medical training in Zambia, she specialised in Geriatrics in the United Kingdom, and later gained an MPhil degree in Epidemiology at the University of Cape Town. Apart from her clinical service and teaching responsibilities, she manages a focused and expanding research programme on functioning and clinical health care at the IAA, and directs ILCSA’s research programme. Her current research interests are falls in older persons, physical and cognitive functioning, and the epidemiology and management of dementia.

Kalula serves on the Executive Board of the South African Geriatrics Society (SAGS), the UCT Health Sciences Board of Graduate Studies and the board of the South African Older Persons Forum (SAOPF), and is a member of the African Research on Ageing Network (AFRAN).E-mail: sebastiana.kalula@uct.ac.za

Monica Ferreira, DPhil, MA, retired as the director of the Institute of Ageing in Africa (IAA) at the end of 2006, but remains the president of ILCSA.

Ferreira trained in Sociology and has worked in African Gerontology for more than three decades. She is active in ILCSA’s research programme, and drives its policy and advocacy programmes and community interventions. Her current research and policy interest areas include social protection, functioning and quality of life of older persons, and older women and HIV/AIDS.

Ferreira serves on the advisory boards of the World Demographic Association (WDA) and the International Institute of Ageing (United Nations–Malta)(INIA), and in the Steering Group of the African Research on Ageing Network (AFRAN). She recently stepped down as the Regional Representative for Africa of the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA) (2005–2008). She has been a consultant to the United Nations, the African Union and the World Health Organization.

While Ferreira devotes the major part of her time to ILCSA activities, she recently established a consultancy, AgeConsultAfrica. Apart from contributing to the output of ILCSA programmes, she authors scientific papers, advises policy groups, and conducts national and regional consultancies. E-mail: monica.ferreira@uct.ac.za

Zameka Ndzotyana, a Technical Assistant in the Institute of Ageing in Africa (IAA) since 2003, has been seconded to ILCSA as part-time Administrator. She has key responsibility for desktop publishing and the ILCSA website, and conducts research related tasks such as fieldwork co-ordination and data capture. Xhosa speaking – the African language spoken commonly in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces, she is particularly valuable to the IAA and ILCSA as a translator.

Ndzotyana will complete a B.Comm degree with majors in Information Systems and Finance through the distance education University of South Africa at the end of 2008. She is be pleased to help interested persons with queries relating to ILCSA activities, products, etc. Please contact her zam.ndzotyana@uct.ac.za

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Key national and regional scholars who have a valuable contribution to make to ILCSA and subscribe to its values and goals are being invited to join ILCSA as associates.Four ILCSA associates have been appointed to date and are introduced below.

Isabella Aboderin, PhD, MSc, BSc, is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Ageing (OIA). She leads the OIA’s programme on ageing in Africa through conduct of research and co-ordination of the African Research on Ageing Network (AFRAN). Before joining the OIA, she worked as a technical officer in the WHO Ageing and Life Course programme; a research associate at the International Institute on Health and Ageing, University of Bristol; and a research consultant on projects for the WHO, the UK Department for International Development (DfiD), the University of Manchester’s Institute for Development and Policy Management (IDPM), and the Commonwealth Foundation.

Aboderin obtained a PhD from the School of Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. The title of her thesis was “Social change and decline in family support for older people in Ghana: An investigation of the nature and causes of shifts in support”. Her core research interests fall in three areas: a) The impacts of social change and contexts on intergenerational family support norms, patterns and relationships; b) the social and life course determinants of health in old age; and c) ageing and development in sub-Saharan Africa.She is currently a visiting scholar at the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) in Nairobi, Kenya.

Harrison Bloom, MD, is a Senior Associate in the International Longevity Center-USA (ILC-USA), and an Associate Clinical Professor of Geriatrics in the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He was previously the Chief of the Division of Geriatric Medicine at St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital Center, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, and the Vice Chairman for Clinical Affairs in the Department of Geriatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Bloom’s focal area at ILC-USA is the International Clinical-Education and Consultation Service, established to teach the principles of health care for older persons in developing countries. The founder and director of this service, he has thus far undertaken projects and teaching consultations in Lebanon, Taiwan, South Africa, Singapore, Mexico, Malta, Russia, Bulgaria, India and China. Dr Bloom also co-ordinates the academic and clinical parts of an ILC-USA programme that is leading a coalition of national organisations to establish guidelines for the assessment and treatment of sleep disorders in older persons.

Bloom’s other major areas of interest are chronic disease management, health promotion/disease prevention, medication use/misuse, transitional care and dementia. Bloom has given numerous presentations nationally and internationally, has authored a book on drug prescription for older individuals, has written several chapters for textbooks and other medical books, and has published a number of papers in the medical literature. His interest in medicine and international health began when he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia in the late 1960s.

Bilkish Cassim, MBChB, FCP(SA), MD(UK), an Associate Professor and Chief Specialist, is head of the Department of Geriatrics in the School of Clinical Medicine of the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa. The department provides an inpatient and outpatient clinical service at King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban, and teaches geriatrics to undergraduate and postgraduate medical students. She is also actively involved in the training of allied health professionals, and works closely with the provincial Department of Health and non-profit and community based organisations.

Cassim is the president of the South African Geriatrics Society (SAGS). She is involved in the revision of the curriculum and examination format of the sub-specialty certificate in Geriatrics of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa (CMSA). She was a founder member of the National Osteoporosis Foundation and currently serves on the executive committee; is a member of the Council of the College of Physicians of South Africa; and serves as honorary registrar of the Education Committee of the CMSA.

Cassim has established a multidisciplinary research group with a focus on ageing at UKZN. Current research projects include the spectrum of diseases in black African older persons, the impact of HIV/AIDS on older persons, the health status of community living older persons, and the prevalence and outcome of hip fractures in different ethnic groups. E-mail: cassimb@ukzn.ac.za

Jaco Hoffman, BA, BA Hons, MA (Sociology), BD, is currently a James Martin Research Fellow in the Oxford Institute of Ageing (OIA) in the UK. A South African, he joined the OIA in 2006, and contributes to the development of the Institute’s focus on ageing in Africa through co-ordination of the African Research on Ageing Network (AFRAN). Hoffman is reading for a doctoral degree in Sociology at the University of Oxford. His current main research interest area is intergenerational issues in Africa in general and in the context of HIV/AIDS in particular.

Hoffman is the interim president of the South African Gerontology Association (SAGA). He co-ordinated the establishment of the South African Older Person’s Forum (SAOPF). He is a founder of the Mthimkhulu Centre and Housing for the Aged at eMalahleni (Witbank, in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa), which has incorporated universal design principles in an African context.

He is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Intergenerational Relationships and the Journal of Population Ageing, and the scientific programme committee of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics 19th World Congress (Paris, 2009), and is a board member of the International Sociological Association RC11 “Sociology of Aging”. Email: jacobus.hoffman@ageing.ox.ac.uk
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Dr Monica Ferreira, president of ILCSA, gave the prestigious 2006/07 Harold Hatch Lecture in Geriatrics and Gerontology at the Mount Sinai Medical Centre in New York City, USA in March 2007.The presenter of the 2005/06 lecture was Professor Sir Michael Marmot in the UK, whose lecture was entitled “Why care? How status affects our health and longevity.”

The title of Ferreira’s lecture was “Growing old in South Africa: Between AIDS, baobabs and longevity.” Her lecture dealt with challenges and opportunities of growing old in South Africa, and examined formal and informal responses to implications of longevity and the needs of older persons. Click here

The ILC Global Alliance partners meet annually in one of the ILC partner countries. The 2007 meeting was held in the UK, hosted by Baroness Sally Greengross, Chief Executive of ILC–UK, in London on October 14–17. Apart from Global Alliance business meetings, which were held in Westminster, partners and invited guests participated in:

• An ILC Symposium on “Maximizing health potential as a human right.” Professor Sir Michael Marmot’s key presentation in the symposium was entitled “Socio-economic determinants, human rights and access to years of life.” Dr Alex Kalache responded to the presentation, which was followed by short presentations by representatives of each of the ILC partner organisations, on health, ageing and human rights in their country.
   
• A parliamentary debate, in partnership with Help the Aged, entitled “ Achieving age equality: policy priorities and the role of the new [UK] Commission for Equality & Human Rights,” in which spokespeople from three political parties made input.
   
• An ILC Global Alliance Conference on “Human Rights in An Ageing World.” Speakers in the one-day conference included Robert Butler (President and CEO, ILC–USA), Frances Butler (Vice President, British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR), Sally Greengross (ILC–UK), Alexandre Kalache (formerly at WHO), Rosy Pereyra (ILC Dominican Republic), Trevor Philips (Chair, Commission for Equality and Rights) and Michael Wills (Minister of State, UK Ministry of Justice).

Abbreviated presentations in the Conference have been published by ILC–UK and may be accessed at www.ilcuk.org.uk

To view the paper prepared by ILCSA’s Monica Ferreira and Sebastiana Kalula, entitled “Human rights and ageing in South Africa,” published by ILC–UK, Click here

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In July 2008, ILCSA’s Monica Ferreira and Sebastiana Kalula, and ILCSA associate Bilkish Cassim participated in a three-day meeting on “Advancing Health Service Provision for Older Persons and Age-related Non-communicable Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa: Identifying Key Information and Training Needs,” in Abuja, Nigeria. The meeting was convened by ILCSA associates Isabella Aboderin and Jaco Hoffman, co-ordinators of AFRAN, and sponsored by the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG) and Help the Aged (UK). Thirty-five policy makers, health professionals, academics and resource persons from four countries – Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa – participated in the meeting. Participants

• identified principle impediments to effective policy action, and key information and training needs relating to the provision of health care for older persons across the countries;
  
  
• considered Africa–relevant research and training responses to address gaps in knowledge, policy and training; and
  
  
• identified opportunities, approaches and first steps towards forging cross–national, collaborative research and training responses.
  
  

A report on the outcomes of the dialogue may be consulted on this website. Click here

In July 2008, Dr Enid Schatz, PhD, gave a seminar in the ILCSA/IAA Seminar Series entitled "Co-existing discourses: How older women in South Africa make sense of the HIV/AIDS epidemic." Schatz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy in the School of Health Professions at the University of Missouri in the USA. She also holds positions as a Research Associate at the University of Colorado (USA) and an Honorary Researcher at the University of the Witswatersrand in Johannesburg. Her current work focuses on the social and structural impacts of HIV/AIDS on households in rural South Africa, with an emphasis on gendered and generational dynamics. The qualitative study upon which her presentation was based, conducted among 60 women at the Agincourt site in Mpumalanga province. To view Dr Schatz' seminar powerpoint presentation. Click here

ILCSA has set a three-year agenda for action (2008–2010), key items of which are:

• A focused research programme, which includes a) a six-year, qualitative follow-up study of the Non-contributory Pension and Poverty Study (NCPPS) project, now known as BRAZZA2, " on the impact of social pension income on household poverty alleviation and the contributions of elders to development; b) a continuation of the SUFFICE project on sustaining the functioning and involvement of contributive elders; c) an investigation and intervention to improve the quality of care of older health care clients – specifically the interdisciplinary management of falls; and d) a multi-country ILC Alliance study with ILC partners in developing countries on older women (the study is in the planning stage).
   
• Strengthened and expanded education and training programmes in Africa-relevant Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine.
   
• Stronger participation in national and sub-regional policy development and implementation evaluation activities.
   
• Engagement in a range of initiatives and activities to empower and capacitate older persons, in partnerships with NPOs, through advocacy, programme and project design and implementation, and replication of best practices appropriate in the sub-region.
   
• Continued organisational development of ILCSA, and of core and new ILCSA programmes and activities.
   
• Stronger positioning of ILCSA as an organisation, and promotion of ILC principles, values and goals nationally and regionally.
   
• Successful solicitation of medium to long term financial support, in an environment of scarce resources and competing demands and priorities, to ensure the sustainability of ILCSA and the expansion of its programmes.

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