RFA-GH-19-015 College of Medicine Malaria Alert Center PROJECT SUMMARY 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 College of Medicine Malaria Alert Centre is applying 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 five 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 school children as a vulnerable group on top of under-five children and pregnant women - this is 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 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 respectively. In order to achieve these, a number of field and laboratory studies have been suggested. 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.
RFA-GH-19-015 College of Medicine Malaria Alert Center PROJECT NARRATIVE The continued high burden of malaria in face of increased scale up interventions carries with it the obligation for the Malawi National Malaria Control Program and its partners to identify barriers to access to interventions and factors affecting the effectiveness of the program. The goal of this application is to catalyze national efforts to conduct operational research, use evidence based polices in malaria control and mount an effective monitoring and evaluation of the malaria program. These efforts should effectively lead to significant reduction of malaria-related morbidity and mortality in Malawi and in the long term support the elimination of malaria.
