New Global Fund board member Javier Hourcade Bellocq calls for strengthened links with global and regional networks
27 March 2006
Alliance staff member Javier Hourcade Bellocq has been appointed alternate board member for the communities delegation to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The delegation is committed to ensuring the greater impact of the Global Fund at the community level by bringing the voices and needs of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to the deliberations of the Global Fund board and committees.
Javier, Senior Programme Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Alliance, believes that the largest challenge currently facing the delegation is to establish effective communication channels with those they represent. “The voice of affected communities is the most important when it comes to making informed decisions,” he said. “I believe networking to be the most participatory mechanism and the only way in which the interests of affected communities can be properly represented. To achieve this, existing links to the global and regional networks must be sustained and improved.”
Javier has more than a decade of experience working with and for people living with HIV/AIDS in Latin America and internationally, both at the grassroots and in international agencies and forums. He is a former director of REDLA+, the Latin American Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, and a former board member of GNP+, the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS.
“Javier is highly experienced at representing the views and concerns of people living with HIV/AIDS at an international level,” said Alvaro Bermejo, the Alliance’s executive director, “and we look forward to supporting him in this critical role.
“He has a profound understanding of how HIV/AIDS affects populations most vulnerable to epidemic, such as injecting drug users, sex workers, gay and other men who have sex with men. He was also instrumental in setting up a working group at the Alliance to support the greater involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS in our operations.”
Javier will be building on the achievements of Anandi Yuvaraj, Senior Programme Officer at the India HIV/AIDS Alliance, who served as the communities’ board representative from 2003 to 2005. He will serve a one-year term as alternate, and an additional one-year term as board member.
