USAID awards MEASURE Evaluation $36 million to support malaria control and elimination

June 25, 2019

Dr. Jim Thomas

A newly awarded malaria-focused program — “Strengthening Surveillance, Monitoring and Evaluation for Malaria Control and Elimination” — will provide $36 million in funding for MEASURE Evaluation, housed at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The award comes from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which funds MEASURE Evaluation — a global health project.

The funds and program work will supplement MEASURE Evaluation’s main USAID award. The new award will be used over five years (June 2019 to June 2024) to strengthen malaria information systems and build capacity in countries supported by the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative for malaria surveillance, monitoring and evaluation (SM&E). Consortium partners are: UNC; ICF Macro, Inc.; Tulane University; John Snow, Inc.; and Palladium International, LLC.

Malaria is a major cause of death worldwide, with an estimated 219 million cases and 435,000 deaths in 2017, primarily in Africa. Increasing the capacity of national malaria programs, ministries of health and communities to collect, analyze and use malaria data to improve detection, quality of care and best placement of resources is an important strategy for eliminating malaria.

Shaabani Khamis visits the home of malaria patient Siti Haji Nassor, 14, to test her mother for malaria, check on medication and follow up using an electronic system. (Photo credit: U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative)

MEASURE Evaluation’s approach for the malaria SM&E program is to provide more accurate and timely data to inform prevention and elimination efforts; support country-level use of strategic information and thereby achieve impact; develop global guidance for malaria SM&E; and support a coordinated response by malaria-endemic countries. The program will:

• Strengthen country-level capacities to collect, analyze and use routine health data;
• Strengthen country-level capacities to manage the health information systems that house and share malaria data; and
• Enhance tools, methods and approaches to address health information challenges.

The technical director of this MEASURE Evaluation associate award is Yazoumé Yé, PhD, vice-president for malaria surveillance and research at ICF, one of MEASURE Evaluation’s partner organizations. UNC’s Brittany Iskarpatyoti, MPH, will serve as operations director. The project’s principal investigator is Jim Thomas, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health and the director of MEASURE Evaluation.

Contact the Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at sphcomm@listserv.unc.edu.