Medical Care Development, Inc. is pleased to announce that Dr. Joséa Ratsirarson has joined the International Division as Director, effective September 3, 2019. Dr. Ratsirarson is a Medical Doctor with a PhD in Public Health and Epidemiology and a Master’s in Public Health. Dr. Ratsirarson has worked for MCDI for 20 years serving as Country Representative in Madagascar and Project Director for more than 10 major projects including Fonds d’Appui pour l’Assainissement’ (FAA), Betioky Child Survival Project, Doris Duke Partnership for Health Project and the Toliara Region Expanded Impact Project. Dr. Ratsirarson’s technical areas of expertise include maternal and child health, nutrition, family planning, water, sanitation and hygiene, communicable and non-communicable diseases, behavior change, health policy, service delivery, quality assurance, equity, and sustainability.

In 2016, Joséa left MCDI to serve as the Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Health of Madagascar, a position he held for 2 years during which he reformulated the national public health policies and implementation strategies for maternal and child health, nutrition, malaria, communicable and non-communicable diseases, and HIV/AIDS. He also promoted enactment of new national public health legislation including a Family Planning Act, Immunization Act, Public Health Act, and Quality of foodstuffs Act. Managing an annual budget of $110 million and a staff of 17,000 civil servants, Dr. Ratsirarson strengthened service delivery through the national network of health facilities including 16 University Hospitals, 16 Regional Hospitals, 40 District Hospitals and more than 2600 Basic Health Centers. He developed a resource mobilization strategy and partnership agenda for the National Ministry of Health.

From 2010 until 2019, Dr. Ratsirarson had a joint appointment as a Research Professor at Mahajanga University in Madagascar teaching Master’s level public health students in epidemiology, public health, biostatistics and research design and protocols.

Finally, Dr. Ratsirarson is recognized internationally as a thought leader in the area of community-led total sanitation (CLTS), playing a leading role in the design and implementation of new strategies to improve impact and sustainability. During his tenure with MCDI, he served as the Team Leader supporting Global Sanitation Foundation (GSF) Country Programs in Benin, Togo, Uganda and Nigeria, engaging national leaders in the region to advocate for CLTS interventions.

"We are very excited about the prospects for MCDI under Dr. Ratsirarson's leadership," said Dr. Christopher Schwabe, MCD's CEO and President. "We are confident that he will bring the same vision, creativity, dedication and effectiveness to leading MCD's International Division that he brought to MCDI's programs in Madagascar over his tenure as Country Director and later as the Secretary General of Madagascar's Ministry of Public Health."

"I am very happy and proud to join the amazing MCD team; I am honored and excited to take the leadership of its International Division," said Dr. Ratsirarson, "I realize the magnitude of the challenge that I am taking on and I am confident in our success with the support of highly qualified and dedicated technicians and managers, both in the United States and at the country level. I love working with the community and my dream is to see a world where everyone fully benefits from healthy lives and where family members will no longer die from preventable deaths."