Decosas Josef

Dr. Josef Decosas, M.D., M.H.A., Health Administration, Public Health Expert, AIDS Expert (º1949)

• Consultant in public health, health system development, and HIV related issues.
• Josef Decosas has been involved in international health issues since 1984 when he took the first two assignments as a clinician and a teacher of community health officers in Nigeria and in Sierra Leone. He was an advisor on AIDS to the Canadian International Development Agency. In this function he chaired the Management Committee of the WHO Global Programme on AIDS for three years and served on the Global AIDS Commission. He was instrumental in the creation of UNAIDS. He has directed two multi-country international AIDS projects for the German Technical Co-operation (GTZ) in West Africa, and for the Canadian Public Health Association in southern Africa. He has successfully raised funds for the expansion and continuation of both initiatives. As a consultant, he has carried out health sector reviews, project/programme design missions, and evaluations for bilateral and multilateral agencies and for non-governmental organisations. Since February 2002 he is the regional health advisor for Plan International in West Africa, working in 11 countries of the region. He is a Board Member of the Southern African AIDS Trust, a growing regional NGO based in South Africa that is dedicated to building capacity for the community response to AIDS.
• He has a long-term field experience in many countries in Africa and is an internationally known expert in the field of AIDS.
• Josef Decosas joined HERA in 1999.
• His experience is mainly in Southern and West Africa. He has worked or provided consultancy services in Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, DRC, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, Zimbabwe, Zambia), Asia (Bangladesh, Laos, Philippines, Thailand), and Central America (Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua).