STRENGTHENING NATIONAL CAPACITY IN MALARIA

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DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): Morbidity and mortality from malaria remains unacceptably high in Malawi, despite the scale up of various malaria control interventions. This high burden could be as a result of problems in 1) program implementation, 2) uptake and utilization of interventions, 3) absence of a proper program monitoring and evaluation and possibly 4) lack of relevant research to support the program. The Malaria Alert Centre is applying on behalf of the College of Medicine; University of Malawi to undertake a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA to support the Malawi Ministry of Health's efforts to reduce malaria related morbidity and mortality. This cooperative agreement proposal has six main objectives. Objective 1 consists of the conduct of malaria operational research and monitoring and evaluation activities in Malawi. The Ministry of Health has identified collection of entomological indicators as one of the key monitoring and evaluation activities featured highly in this proposal. Objective 2 will develop and validate the impact of revised, enhanced or novel Interventions that will contribute to effective malaria control in Malawi. Since there is a lot of co-morbidities in Malawi, objective 3 will assess strategies to reduce the burden of other infectious diseases. Objective 4 consists of supporting the Ministry of Health in translating the many operational research findings into policy whilst objective 4 and 5 will improve malaria surveillance systems and build capacity for these in the ministry. In order to achieve these, a number of field and laboratory studies have been suggested. The center will also establish a knowledge hub to facilitate communication between researchers and policy makers to support the translation of knowledge into policy. A number of monitoring and evaluation activities have also been proposed, including efforts to build capacity to evaluate the program. Most of the proposed activities are unique and relevant to the national and global malaria control agenda. The activities will be conducted in collaboration with the National Malaria Control Program, with technical support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USA) and other centers of excellence. This cooperation will build reasonable local capacity to undertake future malaria research on behalf of the Ministry of Health. Data and lessons learnt will be shared with the Ministry of Health, President Malaria Initiative (PMI), USAID and other malaria implementing partners for wider dissemination, to promote the implementation of evidence based malaria interventions.