Accelerating Malaria Elimination in Southern Africa and Beyond: A Country and Global Initiative

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Investigator: Richard Feachem, DSc, PhD
Sponsor: ExxonMobil Foundation

Location(s): Madagascar; Tanzania; Botswana; Lesotho; Namibia; South Africa; Swaziland

Description

The Global Health Group’s Malaria Elimination Initiative provides intellectual and practical support to countries around the world that are pursuing a goal of malaria elimination. The Malaria Elimination Initiative, along with its network of global collaborators, advocates for and supports spatially progressive elimination — working inwards from the current geographic margins of the disease — as a complementary strategy to the significant investment in scaled-up malaria control in highly endemic countries, and research and development of new tools to eventually eradicate the disease.

To support implementation of the African Union declaration and the Southern Africa Development Community strategic plan which states that six countries - Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland, as well as the island states of Madagascar and Zanzibar - take immediate steps to eliminate malaria, the Malaria Elimination Initiative formed a partnership with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to help Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland develop sound, aggressive and evidence-based strategic and operational plans for elimination, mobilize sufficient resources, and effectively manage ongoing implementation of elimination programs, in accordance with national and regional goals.