Country Director
Dr. Joaquim Fernando, a Mozambican national and a medical doctor, brings more than two decades of experience leading public health programs and initiatives in Mozambique for the government and international organizations.
Joaquim has many years of experience managing and implementing programs in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, maternal and child health, HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). This includes six years as Chief of Party for FHI360’s $195 million USAID-funded Clinical and Community HIV/AIDS Services Strengthening (CHASS) Project, which worked in four of Mozambique’s provinces to enhance the capacity of health facilities, district and provincial directorates, and community-based organizations to provide HIV, TB, nutrition, and WASH services. Joaquim comes to Pathfinder from PSI, where he has served as Director of Operations in Mozambique, coordinating all local operations, including management, supervision, training, and coaching of teams in PSI’s five offices.
Prior to working for international organizations, Joaquim served in multiple roles with Mozambique’s Ministry of Health, giving him strong understanding of Mozambique’s policies and regulations, and established relationships with government partners. He was a physician and hospital director at Tete Provincial Hospital, where he was one of the first doctors in Mozambique to administer antiretroviral treatment (ART) to HIV patients. He went on to train other health care workers to administer ART and led the scale-up of integrated HIV and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) services in Tete. After serving at the provincial level, Joaquim became a senior technical manager with the national Ministry of Health, where he designed the structure of the National Direction of Medical Care.
Joaquim holds an M.D. from Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique and an MPH in Disease Control from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium.