Aging in times of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) becomes an increasingly pressing issue, also in the Global South. Much is written about policies and programs to address these issues – but little is known about how ordinary citizens deal with these efforts and their effects. This presentation helps to fill this gap through insights from ongoing ethnographic research in Indonesia and Tanzania.

About the Speakers

Piet van Eeuwijk (PD Dr. Habil.) is a trained social anthropologist and historian. He works as senior lecturer and senior researcher at different Swiss and German universities (Basel, Zurich, Freiburg i.Br.) and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (University Basel). His special field is medical anthropology and his research focuses on health and illness in different settings in the Global South (Southeast Asia, East Africa, West Africa, Melanesia). Additional training has been received in development policy and project management. His current research deals with ‘ageing, health and care’, that is older persons in the context of rapidly changing social, economic and health conditions in the Global South.

Brigit Obrist is professor of anthropology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, with a joint position at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. Since 1980 she has conducted research in Papua New Guinea, Switzerland, Indonesia, and Tanzania, and directed various applied projects. She currently leads a medical anthropology research group with post-doctoral and PhD projects in Germany, Switzerland, East and West Africa in the fields of malaria, urban health, sexual and reproductive health, ageing and health, and on media and health. Her latest project is on Participation in Social Health Protection in Tanzania (Swiss National Science Foundation).

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Image: Wikimedia Commons