Former IAA Director Prof. Ferreira honoured for her contribution to African Gerontology

Professor Monica Ferreira, who served as Director of the Albertina & Walter Sisulu Institute of Ageing (IAA) from 2001 to 2006, was honoured for her contribution to African Gerontology at the World Demographic & Ageing (WDA) Forum's 4th World Ageing & Generations Congress, held in St Gallen, Switzerland, 28–30 August 2008.

Ferreira has made an important contribution to the development of gerontology in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Highlights of her career were co-ordinating the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) national Co-operative Research Programme on Ageing; founding and editing nine volumes of the Southern African Journal of Gerontology, serving on the United Nations' Technical Committee to draft the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing in 2002, and numerous consultancies undertaken to the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the African Union.

Between 1991 and 2001, she headed the HRSC/UCT Centre for Gerontology at UCT, later incorporated into the Institute of Ageing in South Africa (IAA). Before that, she led the Centre for Research on Ageing of the HSRC in Pretoria.

Ferreira currently serves as President of International Longevity Centre South Africa (ILCSA) and continues to work with IAA team members on various projects.