A physician by training, Dirk Van der Roost is now a retiree, active with Grandparents for Climate and with the Climate Coalition. His career in development cooperation started in the field for Doctors Without Borders in Sudan, Somalia and Peru, and then he worked at the NGO Federation, at the Cabinet of Secretary of State for Development Cooperation Eddy Boutmans, at ITM and at Broederlijk Delen. For 20 years, he also had a part-time medical practice. He considers the mainstreaming of HIV/AIDS in Belgian development cooperation as his main achievement.

At ITM, his assignment was to promote cooperation between Belgian stakeholders in international health care, and so he was at the cradle of Be-cause health in 2004. Another assignment was to coordinate ITM’s policy advice to our Belgian authorities, and Development Cooperation in particular. Both assignments overlapped in part, which meant cross-fertilization. Furthermore, he had a representative function in the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trial Network and organized several international conferences.