Malaria Consortium at 10: Celebrating a decade in disease control and child health

Malaria Consortium was founded in 2003 by a small team of people with a vision - to build the capacity of malaria-endemic countries worldwide to deal with a common and treatable disease that was devastating the lives of poor and vulnerable communities. Over the course of a decade of innovation and strong partnerships, this vision has grown from focusing solely on malaria control and prevention, to include integrated approaches to improving child health and neglected tropical diseases across Africa and Asia.

On 25 February, partners past and present gathered in London to celebrate Malaria Consortium’s 10th Anniversary by looking back at our key achievements but also looking at the key priorities moving forward.

Split into three sessions, the day included three presentations each followed by panel discussions and questions and answers.

Some of the highlights included Dr James Tibenderana, Malaria Consortium’s Development Director, presenting on disease control where he outlined Malaria Consortium’s values of technical excellence, responsiveness, innovation, results orientation and collaboration. Dr Tibenderana went onto outline the organisation’s extensive work on mosquito nets that has resulted in the creation of NetCALC, a modelling system that can accurately calculate net usage. Other learning shared included our work towards universal access to parasite-based diagnosis and case management of malaria with artemisinin-based combination therapy.

Health system strengthening and working with the community has been a core focus for us over the past decade and Helen Counihan, Malaria Consortium’s Senior Public Health Specialist, presented some highlights in linking the community to the health system. She emphasised how one size does not fit all and that there must be a fundamental understanding of the context to inform activity design and that the community needs to lead by building their capacity to manage their own health to help ensure sustainability. She also outlined some of the key projects that have worked to achieve this including the Clover Project, SuNMaP, Drugman, integrated community case management CIDA Project and COMDIS-HSD.

The day concluded with a presentation from Dr Sylvia Meek, Malaria Consortium’s Technical Director, on moving towards elimination. She highlighted the historical shift over the past decade in ambitions to fight malaria with elimination now being included in national strategies in countries with even the highest burdens. She also emphasised the importance of achieving plasmodium falciparum elimination as quickly as possible in areas of artemisinin resistance and the need for improved surveillance systems and capacity to provide the detailed timely information for elimination. Some of the highlights from Malaria Consortium’s work included the Beyond Garki project that aims to understand what really works in elimination areas and also the MESA and Cross-border Projects that have tested the interventions used in Southeast Asia.

Speaking at the event, Malaria Consortium's Chief Executive Charles Nelson said: “As we celebrate a decade of working in communicable disease control and child health, we are delighted, over that period, to have had a part to play in a proving and implementing a variety of interventions with part to play in testing, improving and implementing a variety of interventions. There are always challenges when working in global public health, but we do still have some extremely effective tools at our disposal. The most important thing is not to become complacent and we are clear that our work is not yet done. We still have a substantial role to play in our mission to rid the world of some of the infectious diseases that impact most on those who can afford it least.”

In addition to the presentations, Malaria Consortium also launched their 10th Anniversary Report which can be downloaded here.

Part One: Disease Control: Malaria and NTDs - View the full session online here.
Dr James Tibenderana, Malaria Consortium - Download the presentation here.

Panel Discussion
Charles Nelson (Chair), Chief Executive, Malaria Consortium
Dr Bernard Nahlen, President’s Malaria Initiative, USAID
Dr Godfrey Magumba, Malaria Consortium
Dr Desmond Chavasse, Population Services International

Question and Answers

Part Two: Linking the Community to Health Systems - View the full session online here.
Helen Counihan, Malaria Consortium - Download the presentation here.

Panel Discussion
Dr Karin Kallander (Chair), Malaria Consortium
Nichola Cadge, UK Department for International Development
Dr Kolawole Maxwell, Malaria Consortium
Dr Franco Pagnoni, WHO Global Malaria Programme

Question and Answers

Part Three: Moving Towards Elimination - View the full session online here.
Dr Sylvia Meek, Malaria Consortium - Download the presentation here.

Panel Discussion
Dr Arantxa Roca (Chair), Malaria Consortium
Prof Simon Brooker, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Dr Lek Dysoley, Ministry of Health, Cambodia
Prof Chris Drakeley, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 

Question and Answers