10.09.2008 - 12:55pm ET

(CSRwire) - October 9, 2008 - Fred Cohen, the Chairman of PCI-Media Impact, a leading international NGO, today announced that Alan Court had joined its Board of Directors. Mr. Court is currently Senior Advisor to the United Nation's Secretary General's Special Envoy for Malaria. PCI-Media Impact's mission is to improve health, promote human rights and bring social advancement through the creative use of media.

"PCI-Media Impact will benefit considerably from Alan's worldwide experience," said PCI-Media Impact Board Chair, Fred Cohen. "Given our ambitious strategic and creative plans and the complex decisions we face as an international organization, I am very pleased and honored that PCI-Media Impact can attract such an influential and experienced person to our board of directors."

Said Mr. Court, "I have long understood the central role media plays in the successful implementation of programs and in helping create a demand for appropriate goods and services," said Mr. Court. "PCI-Media Impact's long experience in engaging the individuals and communities to make smart choices about how to improve their health and the real impact it makes is exactly what I have been doing for over thirty years."
Until his recent retirement from UNICEF, Mr. Court was the Director of the UNICEF Programme Division and had previously been posted in Latin America, Africa and South Asia. As the Director of the UNICEF Programme Division, he oversaw the centre piece of UNICEF's work. He led the division's strategy development, program guidance and implementation processes and was responsible for seeing UNICEF's programs were focused on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Prior to this, Mr. Court served for five years as Director of the UNICEF Supply Division in Copenhagen. Before working in New York and Copenhagen, Mr. Court had a long and distinguished career in the field where from August 1998 to December 2000, he was the UNICEF Country Representative in India. Beforehand, he served as Deputy Regional Director of the Americas and Caribbean region in Bogotá, Colombia after having served as UNICEF Representative in Bolivia from 1993 to 1995. In 1992, he served as Special Representative in the former Yugoslavia.

Prior to that, he was the UNICEF representative in Chad after having served as Programme coordinator in Nepal. From 1983-1986, Mr. Court was the Programme Planning Officer in Ethiopia, after having managed nutrition and agricultural programmes in Indonesia. His first appointment with UNICEF was in Bangladesh from 1975 to 1978, after two years working with NGOs there.

Mr. Court holds a Masters Degree in Rural Social Development from the University Of Reading School Of Education. He is married with two children and is a national of the United Kingdom.

About PCI-Media Impact

Since 1985, PCI-Media Impact's programs have addressed the root causes of poverty and have encouraged people to make choices that lead to better health and sustainable development. Working with local partners worldwide, PCI-Media Impact produces carefully researched and culturally sensitive radio and television dramas that combine the power of storytelling with the reach of broadcast media. For more information, please visit PCI-Media Impact's website at www.pci-mediaimpact.org

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