Communicating malaria reseach with the malaria knowledge programme

The Malaria Knowledge Programme is working across sectors and using networks to increase the impact of its research, reports Alison Dunn, Exchange's Research Officer.

Every day over 3000 people die of malaria. Nine out of 10 of these are young children in Africa.

UNICEF states that malaria is one of the primary killers of children, yet globally there is a disproportionately small amount of funding being directed to tackling malaria.

The Malaria Knowledge Programme (MKP) at the UK's Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has been working over the past three years on a variety of approaches to face the challenges that malaria presents.

Working across disciplines and sectors, the programme has had a wide-ranging impact: on action to improve diagnosis of malaria; on ensuring community participation in locally driven initiatives; and on drawing attention to ways to increase the resilience of people who are most vulnerable to the effects of malaria.

MKP recognises the importance of sharing and communicating their research results and has asked Healthlink Worldwide to work with them to disseminate their key findings.

MKP's research aims to influence policy and practice in key areas such as improving diagnostics, prevention and treatment, ensuring gender equity, and addressing the needs of the most vulnerable people.

But policy makers rarely make decisions directly based on research evidence. Recent work by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and others shows that changes take place within a wider political and economic context and under local institutional constraints. This presents a challenge to researchers seeking to influence policy changes.

A key way to enhance the influence of research is to link policy makers, researchers and grassroots actors through networks and communication. MKP is attempting to do this in a number of ways.

In South Africa, in December 2004, MKP organised an international workshop on the emerging threat of urban malaria in association with the Systemwide Initiative on Malaria and Agriculture and the International Water Management Institute. MKP provided sponsorship for participants as part of their commitment to disseminate research results.

The workshop brought together representatives from many different fields: mosquito control, epidemiology, medicine, social science,agriculture, water, sanitation and environment, non-governmental organisations and government bodies such as USAID.

Malaria was, until recently, viewed almost exclusively as a rural disease. However, evidence now shows that urban malaria may affect vulnerable people living in towns and cities. Over 50 towns across Africa are each home to more than 1 million people and smaller towns are also at risk.

A transdisciplinary approach to tackling the new threat of urban malaria was seen to be the most effective way forward.

One outcome of the workshop is that the participants decided to form a network on urban malaria to continue to share their understanding and expertise. In this way, through networking and communication, they hope to be able to influence policy and practice to avert the potential increasing impact of malaria in urban areas.

In the UK, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Malaria has recently been convened to discuss the importance of malaria in the international context, which presents opportunities to discuss evidence and practice between researchers, practitioners and politicians.

The Malaria Knowledge Programme is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Exchange is working with Healthlink Worldwide and MKP on communicating malaria research.

Communicating malaria research