Prof Zitha Mokomane, from the Department of Sociology in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria, has been appointed as a member of the International Advisory Board of the India-based Service and Research Institute on Family and Children (SERFAC) for a term of five years.

SERFAC was inaugurated in November 1986 and obtained special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in 1998. It currently functions as a global research centre on family and child policy and is one of only a few organisations worldwide to focus on the interrelatedness among human development, socio-economic issues, political and technological institutions, democratic systems and effective governance. Through its work, SERFAC aims to identify contemporary trends of social engineering and human morphing, and to uphold the value of human life while protecting the individual through all stages of life. Furthermore, it endeavours to identify the causes of the weakening of democratic systems and governance and the breakdown of democracy, and strives to create societies of justice, integrity, equality, equity and mutual gender respect, thereby minimising exploitation in human relations.

Prof Mokomane is more than qualified to contribute to SERFAC’s efforts as she has extensive research, policy and programmatic expertise in the field of family studies, with specific interest in the work–family interface and social policy analysis, as well as poverty reduction and social protection. Her work to date includes the development of the South African White Paper on Families, which was approved by Cabinet in June 2013; the drafting of the African Common Position on the Family (African Union Commission, 2012); the development of the Policy Framework on Social Security to Youth in South Africa (National Department of Social Development, 2012); and the development of the Social Policy Framework for Africa (African Union Commission, 2008).