Roll Back Malaria Partnership

Roll Back Malaria Partnership
Name	Roll Back Malaria Partnership
Abbreviation	RBM Partnership
Formation	1998
Founder	World Health Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, World Bank
Type	Partnership
Headquarters	Geneva
Location	Switzerland
Region served	Global South
Leader title	Board Chair

Roll Back Malaria Partnership is a global partnership coalescing World Health Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, and World Bank efforts to reduce the burden of malaria and accelerate control in endemic regions. The Partnership mobilizes actors across United Nations, African Union, European Union, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Clinton Health Access Initiative, and national malaria control programs to scale interventions such as insecticide-treated bednet distribution, artemisinin-based combination therapy, and intermittent preventive treatment. It coordinates policy, advocacy, research, and resource mobilization with stakeholders including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Agency for International Development, UK Department for International Development, Médecins Sans Frontières, PATH (global health organization), Roll Back Malaria Partnership Secretariat and regional bodies.

History and formation

The initiative was launched following high-level meetings among World Health Organization, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Children's Fund, World Bank and ministers from African Union member states, endorsed at forums such as the World Health Assembly and the New York UN General Assembly sessions. Early advocacy drew on evidence assembled by researchers from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, and trial sites in Mozambique, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Uganda. Donor dialogues involved representatives from United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, European Commission, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and private partners like the Wellcome Trust and Rockefeller Foundation. The Partnership's founding frameworks referenced targets set by the Millennium Development Goals and later aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030.

Structure and governance

Governance includes a board with representatives from multilateral institutions such as World Health Organization, World Bank, United Nations Children's Fund, bilateral donors like United States Agency for International Development, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, regional entities such as African Union, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and implementing partners including National Malaria Control Programme (country-level), Institute Pasteur, Ifakara Health Institute, Makerere University, University of Ghana, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Operational arms include working groups on surveillance, vector control, case management, and health systems, populated by organizations like PATH (global health organization), Clinton Health Access Initiative, Médecins Sans Frontières, Save the Children, CARE International, and research networks including MalariaGEN, WHO Malaria Policy Advisory Group, and academic partners such as Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Strategies and programs

Programmatic approaches combine vector control with chemoprevention and diagnostics through initiatives linked to Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria grants, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance vaccine introduction pilots, and pilot deployment of RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine in coordination with World Health Organization recommendations. Strategies promote scale-up of insecticide-treated bednet campaigns, indoor residual spraying coordinated with President's Malaria Initiative, and expansion of rapid diagnostic test access at clinics supported by Clinton Health Access Initiative procurement. Research priorities align with trials at institutions such as Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, KEMRI–Wellcome Trust Research Programme, and collaborative consortia like MalariaGEN and Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network. Capacity building leverages training partnerships with London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Ifakara Health Institute, and national ministries of health in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad and Burkina Faso.

Partnerships and funding

Funding streams include contributions from Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Gates Foundation, United States Agency for International Development, President's Malaria Initiative, UK Department for International Development, European Commission, Norad, and philanthropic donors like Wellcome Trust and Rockefeller Foundation. Partner coordination spans bilateral agencies such as DFID (UK), USAID, Agence Française de Développement, and private-sector pharmaceutical partners including Novartis, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Bayer, and diagnostics firms such as Abbott Laboratories and Thermo Fisher Scientific. Implementation partners include Médecins Sans Frontières, Save the Children, World Vision, CARE International, and research funders such as National Institutes of Health, European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, and Wellcome Trust.

Monitoring, evaluation and impact

Monitoring and evaluation rely on surveillance systems coordinated with World Health Organization regional offices, national health information systems, and data platforms operated by Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Malaria Atlas Project, UNICEF, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Impact assessments draw on household survey data such as Demographic and Health Surveys, Malaria Indicator Surveys, and programmatic reports from national ministries of health in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and Nigeria. Analyses published in journals like The Lancet, Nature Medicine, BMJ, PLoS Medicine, and Malaria Journal evaluate trends in incidence, prevalence, mortality, and resistance markers catalogued by Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network and MalariaGEN.

Challenges and criticisms

Critiques include concerns about dependency on external funding from actors such as Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, coordination challenges among multilateral bodies like World Health Organization and regional blocs such as African Union, and operational difficulties in fragile states including Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. Scientific challenges include emergence of artemisinin resistance documented by research consortia and surveillance networks in Greater Mekong Subregion sites in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and increasing insecticide resistance among vectors catalogued by VectorBase and entomological units at Ifakara Health Institute. Policy criticisms have been raised in analyses by academics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and commentators in The Lancet regarding prioritization, country ownership, and sustainability of interventions tied to Global Fund grant cycles.

Category:International medical and health organizations