LEGISLATIVE PROCESS & GOVERNANCE Class III Fellow Profiles
Javier Thellaeche Ortiz
Pedro Pablo Vacaflor Raña
Bolivia
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Expertise: Urban Food Security/Policy Home Organization: Fundación Alternativas Host Organization: City of Portland Host City/State: Portland, Oregon
Bolivia
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Expertise: Food Security; Advocacy Home Organization: Acción Contra el Hambre Host Organization: Feed Communities Host City/State: Fayetteville, Arkansas
Mr. Javier Thellaeche is a Food Policy Program Officer at Fundación Alternativas, a non-profit organization dedicated to guaranteeing people’s right to food. At Alternativas, he is spearheading the development of Bolivia’s first urban food policy at the municipal and state level in hopes of generating models for other cities around the country. He coordinates with different food chain stakeholders, drafts food policies and policy framework, generates citizen feedback, and follows lobby strategies. Prior to this, Thellaeche worked at Agronomists and Veterinarians Without Borders, where he conducted research on rural agriculture and alternative markets, published articles, and supervised undergraduate students in their research.
Mr. Pedro Vacaflor works for the Communications and Advocacy Department for Action Against Hunger in Bolivia. His work duties include developing and managing communications plans with the goal of increasing visibility and strengthening advocacy efforts of the organization’s projects. He works with stakeholders, such as mayors, city managers, indigenous communities, media, social and political leaders, and many others. Previously, Mr. Vacaflor served as a volunteer in France with Emmaus carrying out economic activities to promote basic human rights. He was also the Director of Communications in the Town Hall of Tarija in Bolivia, where he compiled information expressing the needs and ideas of the citizens in order to present them to the municipality.
Mr. Thellaeche will be working with the City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, where he will gain an understanding of the working mechanisms of food policies in the U.S. He plans to use the knowledge acquired from his fellowship to improve upon similar policies in his home country of Bolivia.
Mr. Vacaflor hopes to learn the best practices of becoming an agent of change from a profile of project management, while focusing on communications and advocacy. He will be working with Feed Communities to further his knowledge in developing strategies on nutrition-related issues at the national level, and to learn more about working with the donor community.