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Hoda Rashad

  1. Research at AUC
  2. Social Research Center
  3. SRC Team
  4. Hoda Rashad's Bio

Hoda Rashad

Hoda Rashad is a professor and director of the Social Research Center at The American University in Cairo. She holds a doctorate in population studies from the University of London. Previously, Rashad worked as chief technical advisor of the United Nations from 1993 to 1995, an associate of the International Population Council from 1989 to 1993, and a faculty member at the Institute of Statistical Studies and Research, Cairo University from 1991 to 1995.

Her personal research interests are in the areas of social policies for development, health equity and social determinants of health, gender issues and demographic analysis.

She is a resource person and consultant to several national and international organizations. Currently, she serves as a member of the international advisory group of the Institute of Global Health and Development of Aga Khan University (2021 to present), a member of the Advisory Board for a Multi-stakeholder Network on Ageing in the Arab Region established by ESCWA (2022 to present), a member of the AstraZeneca Global Health Equity Advisory Board (2024 to present) and a member of the Lancet Commission on Health and Poverty Alleviation in China (2022 to 2026).

Recently, she served as a member of the High Advisory Committee for Human Development (2025) supporting the deputy prime minister for human development and the chair of the Egyptian Ministerial Committee for Human Development, member of the WHO Global Report on the Commercial Determinants of Health (2024), member of the WHO Advisory Expert Group (2022) for the project "A Social Determinants Framework to Support INSPIRE Implementation," member of the Arab States Office of UNFPA Research Advisory Group from 2021 to 2025 and member of the Policy Advisory Group of the WHO international report "Social Determinants of Health Equity" from 2021 to 2025.

Previously, she served as a member on three high-level commissions established by WHO: Eastern Mediterranean Commission on Social Determinants of Health (2019 to 2020), Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity (2014 to 2016) and Commission on Social Determinants of Health (2005 to 2008).

Rashad also served as a member of the Technical Advisory Committee to the Regional Director of WHO/EMRO from 2013 to 2016; member of the Advisory Committee of the WHO Center for Health Development in Kobe, Japan, for a period of three years from 2012 to 2014; member of the Regional External Advisory Panel for the UNFPA Arab States Regional Office from 2009 to 2010; vice chairman of the Dutch Development Assistance Research Council, a council that advised the Dutch government on policy for development-related research in the Netherlands, from 2002 to 2007; and member of the governing body of the Global Development Network, a network launched in 1999 to support and link research and policy institutes involved in development, from 2001 to 2004.

In Egypt, Rashad served as a member of the National Council for Women, a council that aims to improve the situation of women and their participation in the development of Egypt from 2000 to 2011; a member of the Senate, one of the two parliamentary bodies in Egypt from 2004 to 2011; and a member of the Social, Humanity and Population Science Council, the Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology from 2009 to 2012. She has published a large number of scientific papers and has contributed to several reports whose recommendations were endorsed in resolutions adopted by the World Health Assembly of the WHO, and to reports co-published jointly by the Social Research Center and other United Nations organizations.