Zeba Sathar

Dr. Zeba Sathar is a Distinguished Scholar and Country Advisor at the Population Council’s office in Pakistan. She served as Country Director of the Pakistan office from 2002 until April 2026, leading the Council’s technical assistance and capacity-building, social science research, advocacy, and work on population and the demographic dividend that informed national policy discussions and developments. In her current role, Sathar provides strategic and technical guidance on population, demographic, and reproductive health issues and continues to represent the Council in advisory engagements with government officials and other key stakeholders in Pakistan. Her expertise includes cross-national comparative research, advocacy and policy engagement, analysis of demographic trends and patterns, and evaluations of health service delivery systems. She works closely with Council leadership and colleagues to strengthen research, advocacy, and policy outreach efforts, while continuing to emphasize population and reproductive health as key priorities for Pakistan.

Sathar joined the Council in 1994 as a deputy representative in the Islamabad office, where she conducted research on fertility and family planning, planned and implemented research projects, and managed relationships with donors. Prior to joining the Council, Sathar was chief of research and demography at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics and a population consultant with the World Bank in Islamabad.

In 2006, Sathar received the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz award from the President of Pakistan in recognition of her public service to the development sector in Pakistan. She is also the first Pakistani to be elected to the governing council of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, and is a co-lead of FP2020’s Performance, Monitoring and Accountability working group. Sathar is a lead author on the Population Council’s publication Capturing the Demographic Dividend in Pakistan, an evaluation of population trends, challenges in achieving demographic change, and policies for capturing the demographic dividend in Pakistan.

Sathar has a PhD in medical demography from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an MSc in demography from the London School of Economics. She frequently publishes articles on gender and equality, safe abortion and postabortion care, maternal and child health, and family planning, and presents her research at national and international scientific conferences.