PATH and the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative launch a $30M global project to advance the use of new and existing tools to fight malaria and save lives

Media contact: Lindsay Bosslet | PATH | media@path.org

Seattle, WA, January 26th, 2021 - PATH is pleased to announce that it has been chosen to lead the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative’s (PMI) new five-year $30 million operational research and program evaluation project to help partner countries ensure they are making the most effective and efficient use of resources to fight malaria and save lives. Through strong collaboration with in-country research institutions, PMI Insights for Malaria (INFORM) will generate evidence and data to inform national malaria programs and the global malaria community of best practices, while strengthening research capacity in PMI-supported countries.

The project's initial work will identify and facilitate stakeholder alignment around the most pressing gaps in malaria control and elimination policy, strategy, and implementation guidance. PMI INFORM is also designed to support the dissemination of results in a clear and actionable way, so that national malaria programs and policymakers can use the latest evidence to readily improve malaria programming.

PMI INFORM will build on PMI’s previous operational research efforts, which have focused on improving uptake and scale-up of interventions, cost-effectively implementing combinations of interventions, preserving the effectiveness of interventions in the face of drug and insecticide resistance, measuring the success and impact of interventions, and determining how to incorporate new interventions and when to withdraw less effective ones.

“With PMI’s guidance, we are excited to collaborate with national malaria programs, in-country research institutions, and our consortium of partners to address key questions that countries grapple with as they work to reduce the burden of malaria and keep elimination efforts on track,” said Dr. Megan Littrell, Director of PMI INFORM at PATH.

PATH is the prime partner for PMI INFORM with a consortium of seven sub-partners: Abt Associates; the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London; the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM); the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) of Telethon Kids Institute at Curtin University; the Center for Applied Malaria Research and Evaluation (CAMRE) at Tulane University; and the University of California, San Francisco Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI).

About PATH
PATH is a global nonprofit dedicated to achieving health equity. With more than 40 years of experience forging multisector partnerships, and expertise in science, health, economics, technology, advocacy, and dozens of other specialties, PATH develops and scales innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing health challenges. PATH works in over 70 countries to transform bold ideas into sustainable solutions that improve health and well-being for all, reaching over 150 million people, on average, each year.

About PMI
The U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) supports 24 partner countries in sub-Saharan Africa and three programs in the Greater Mekong Subregion in Southeast Asia to control and eliminate malaria. Led by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented together with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), PMI delivers cost-effective, life-saving malaria interventions—such as insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor residual spraying, and essential medicines—alongside catalytic technical and operational assistance that equips and empowers partner countries to end malaria. Since it was launched in 2005, PMI has also made significant investments in operational research and evaluation, to help guide program development and measure the success and impact of interventions.