Applying for Membership

Members of the World Hepatitis Alliance

The World Hepatitis Alliance is composed of member organisations from every region of the world. Member organisations take part in awareness-raising activities around World Hepatitis Day each year, work together with other members operating in their country, present their Governments with policy requests and communicate their activities to the Alliance Executive Board regularly. In this way, members interact with other patient groups around the world to help share best practices and support common national, regional and global goals.

Membership Criteria

Membership of the World Hepatitis Alliance is free. Organisations can apply to be either a voting or a non-voting member.

Voting Members: Voting members are so called because they are able to vote at annual meetings and may also nominate and elect the Regional Board Members for their region. To become a voting member, an organisation must:

be non-profit and non-governmental and must be independent from commercial, political and religious organisations.
have a legal status appropriate to its country of origin, with a written constitution and/or by-laws. If no appropriate legal status exists in the country of origin, this criterion may be waived at the discretion of the Executive Board.
have chronic viral hepatitis as its primary area of interest and activity.
demonstrate its commitment to patients and the principle of patient-centred healthcare in its guiding statements, such as its vision, mission or organisational objectives, and its activities
have at least one patient on its governing board.

Non-Voting Members: Non-voting members are not able to vote at annual meetings. To become a non-voting member, an organisation must:

be non-profit and non-governmental.
have a legal status appropriate to its country of origin, with a written constitution and/or by-laws. If no appropriate legal status exists in the country of origin, these criteria may be waived at the discretion of the Executive Board.
have a clear interest in chronic viral hepatitis.
demonstrate commitment to improving healthcare and to the principle of patient-centred healthcare in its guiding statements, such as its vision, mission or organisational objectives, and its activities.

The Alliance recognises that some organisations who want to be affiliated do not meet these criteria. In these cases, organisations can request to become an Associated Group. For more information, email contact@worldhepatitisalliance.org

Benefits of Membership

Awareness: All members have primary access to all of the materials we produce. That includes a range of World Hepatitis Day campaign materials and our newsletters. Members are also kept up-to-date with international affairs and other important issues through e-alerts.

Profile: The Alliance is in official relations with WHO. As its profile continues to grow, being a member will significantly increase the credibility of any member organisation, especially with Governments. Furthermore, the Alliance promotes members’ activities, projects and work through our media channels (website, newsletters, Facebook, blogs from member organisations etc), thus giving international visibility to our members.

Policy: The Alliance offers support and advice to members with their policy work, helping them ensure that their country has an effective strategy in place to combat viral hepatitis and, if necessary, can help members get access to their governments.

Upskilling: The Alliance helps member groups build capacity and constantly seeks new ways to support and advise them to become more efficient and professional.

Fundraising: The Alliance is in constant contact with pharmaceutical companies to ensure their affiliates in each country support members’ activities around World Hepatitis Day (e.g. support the printing costs of WHD materials). Additionally, the Alliance may identify fundraising, awareness-raising and policy opportunities for members.

Influence: Voting members may vote at the Alliance’s meetings and may nominate and elect the Regional Board Members for their region. Hence, voting members can influence the way in which the organisation is run. Another key role of board members is to represent the views of members in their region at board level (for example if a member wanted the board to consider holding a big regional conference in their region).

Download Membership Applications

Applications for membership are made to the Alliance’s staff, which will then inform applicants of their decision within 2 calendar months of receipt of the completed application form and all necessary documentation, except in exceptional circumstances. Any organisation refused membership will be informed of the reasons in writing and given the option of appearing or making representations at the next Board meeting to present their case.

Please submit applications to contact@worldhepatitisalliance.org