LSE's Global Health Initiative, Ageing@LSE and Department of International Development are pleased to host a seminar with Dr Ritu Sadana, the Head of Ageing and Health at the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Dr Sadana will discuss with us what it means to build an economy of wellbeing that serves all stakeholders not only shareholders, and that puts people and planet at the center of policy and decision making. This seminar will raise ideas on guiding and seeking out investments and rewards, based on common values and a broader fiscal framework, that is coherent with the economics of well-being. Dr Sadana will also share some learning on ways to draw in private finance that support the objectives of sustainable development and align economics, social and health goals. Finally, in the context of increasing longevity, the seminar will consider that investments in every stage of life, that increase opportunities, greater choice, and a longer health span, allow people to re-imagine how lives could unfold.
Meet Our Speaker
As Head of Ageing and Health at WHO, Dr Ritu Sadana led the research and writing of WHO’s Decade of Healthy Ageing: baseline report, and coordinated the development of the first WHO Global Strategy on Ageing and Health, endorsed by the World Health Assembly. She also conceived the development of the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021-2030, and co-authored the WHO World Report on Ageing and Health. Dr Sadana recently headed the WHO Secretariat that conducted the research and writing for the independent Council on the Economics of Health for All, that issued its Final Report in 2023; and she led a theme issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, and coordinated with sponsoring countries, a World Health Assembly resolution on economics and health for all, endorsed in May 2024.
Dr Sadana is also Principal Investigator of WHO’s efforts to fill in evidence gaps and provide guidance on how to implement a life course approach in practice, connecting a good start to life, optimal development (children, adolescents and youth) and healthy ageing, to support Ministries of Health, as well as policy makers, researchers and civil society in health, education, labor and social protection sectors. She previously led the evidence arm of the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, where she spearheaded methods, peer review and cross country collaborations to strengthen national research systems for health, and developed methods for assessing health in the initial stages of the Global Burden of Disease Study, featured in WHO’s landmark report on Health Systems Performance.
Dr Sadana has more than 30 years of experience in public and private sectors, working in multiple countries and regions, and has championed health equity in low, middle- and high-income countries and has published over 200 scientific and policy publications. She holds a Doctor of Science from Harvard University, a Master of Science in Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), with expertise in economics, epidemiology, demography and health policy.
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