Ethippian Integrated Malaria Research Training Programs Planning Grant

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Ethiopia suffers a tremendous burden from malaria infection. The Ethiopian government has recently expanded their health care training program and has developed a fifteen year Malaria Strategic Plan (2000-2015) to address this problem. The Malaria Consortium along with other in-country malaria stakeholders have been supporting and implementing highly integrated malaria control programs in conjunction with Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH). A trained workforce of Ethiopian nationals who are able to design and carry out malaria outcomes research is required to inform malaria control policies and strategies. A number of important events have transpired in Ethiopia to increase the feasibility of this proposal. The FMOH's National Strategic Plan describes an assessment of the malaria problem in Ethiopia and defines the endpoints needed to improve malaria control. The National Plan goals will thus form the framework to build an outcomes research training program. Secondly, the government has augmented its efforts to increase the training of health care professionals. This includes the establishment of Hawassa University in the Southern Nation, Nationalities, and Peoples (SNNP) Regional State, an area highly endemic for malaria. Hawassa University and its faculty will provide the academic partnership for our proposed outcomes research training program and a future center of excellence. The Malaria Consortium has carried out outcomes research and will provide the expertise and research training opportunities to our students in collaboration with Hawassa University. The U.S. academic partner, Albert Einstein Medical School, has the necessary resources and experienced faculty to facilitate research outcomes training in resource limited settings. The PI, Dr. Daily, has been involved in training of endemic country scientists in malaria under a Fogarty Training Grant in Senegal since 2001 and now will apply this experience to malaria outcomes research training in Ethiopia. This proposal can weave together all the elements needed to build a successful, sustainable, empowering malaria control program informed by outcomes research in Ethiopia. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: