2014 Articles

Strengthening National Climate Data and Information for Malaria Decision Making in Africa (final meeting report)

Platzer, Barbara; McGill, Shirley; Thomson, Madeleine

Formore than a decade, the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership has coordinated the efforts of countries and organizations to reduce morbidity and mortality rates caused by malaria. To consolidate progress to date and improve the targeting of future interventions, the UK Department for International Development (DfID), through the RBM Partnership, has launched an initiative called Strengthening the Use of Data in Malaria Decision Making and Action in the African Region . Acknowledging existing information gaps and the operational challenges of using climate data in particular, this meeting was organized with national collaborators in Ethiopia and Tanzania to present the latest scientific research on the impact of climate on malaria interventions and to demonstrate how climate information can be used to improve health and broader development outcomes. The meeting was convened by the RBM Secretariat with additional funding and technical support from the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH); the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), a WHO Collaborating Center on Early Warning Systems for Malaria and other Climate Sensitive Diseases; and the Columbia Global Centers |Africa (CGC|Africa).