Rafael Vilasanjuan

Rafael Vilasanjuan is a journalist, with a degree in Information Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). Currently, he is the director of ISGlobal's Global Analysis and Development Department since March 2011. He was deputy director of the Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB) from 2006 to 2011.

He has worked for more than 12 years with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) , first as director of Communication , in 1995, and later as general director of the Spanish section of MSF. In 1999, when the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, he was appointed Secretary General of MSF International.until 2005. During this period, he worked in conflict zones such as Afghanistan, the Chechen Republic, Somalia, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Colombia.

As MSF Secretary General, Rafael Vilasanjuan was a founding member of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) , which develops and distributes new medicines in developing countries. Today he still collaborates with the institution.

He has also participated as an observer for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in the supervision of electoral processes in the Middle East.

He is currently a member of the advisory committee of Democracia Abierta(Open Democracy) and member of the IFIT (Insitute for Integrated Transitions) Advisory Council, among others. He was Chairman of the GAVI (Global Alliance of Vaccines Immunization) Civil Society Steering Committee from 2017 to 2019 as well as a member of this committee from 2016 to 2017. Since 2020 he is an alternate member of the GAVI Board of Trustees, representing civil society organizations civil. He has been president of the Exit Foundation (integration of young people at risk of exclusion).

Rafael Vilasanjuan writes a weekly opinion column on international affairs in El Periódico, and collaborates weekly as an analyst on international affairs in the news programs of Cadena SER. He also participates in news programs on TV3.