Emerging Infectious Diseases in Africa

Concern for the escalating emerging infectious diseases in Africa prompted the Fogarty International Center (FIC) to convene meetings in July 1995 and April 1996 in Washington DC to discuss cooperation, collaboration, and funding for health research in Africa. The participants at the meetings were representatives from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Institut Pasteur, Wellcome Trust, UK Medical Research Council (MRC), Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM), Institut de Recherche pour le Development (IRD, formerly ORSTOM), European Commission (EC), and African scientists. In order to facilitate the development of concerted efforts, malaria was selected to be the initial focus, The meetings therefore became the spring board for preparations for the malaria stakeholders conference.

Malaria Conference, 6-9 January 1997, Dakar, Senegal

This was the 1st MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference with over 150 participants consisting of malaria researchers from Africa, Europe, and the US, and representatives of funding organizations. The conference was subsequent to the two earlier meetings in Washington DC in 1995 and 1996, and its aims were to identify scientific questions to be answered in order to address the malaria problem in Africa, and to discuss mechanisms for supporting the identified research priorities. The conference discussions identified malaria priority research questions, their justifications, and the required collaboration for furthering the research, constituting the Dakar Recommendations.
(Malaria in Africa: Challenges for Co-operation Meeting report)

Malaria Research Funding Meeting, 8-9 July 1997 in The Hague, The Netherlands

Representatives of donor organizations met for further discussions on the mechanisms for supporting malaria research priorities identified in Dakar. Multilateral funding mechanism was set up at the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) through which MIM partners could directly contribute money for research capability strengthening in Africa in the form of peer-reviewed grants. MIM was broadened to include representatives of industry and development agencies. View the meeting report in PDF format [81k](requires Adobe's free Acrobat Reader).

MIM Secretariat 1997-1999 at Wellcome Trust, London, United Kingdom

After becoming the first host to the MIM Secretariat in October 1997, the Wellcome Trust convened the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Meeting, 10-11 November 1997 in London. The meeting defined specific priority areas to impact on malaria and identified the initial steps required to address these areas. View the meeting report in PDF format [34k](requires Adobe's free Acrobat Reader). By the end of 1998 the other three MIM constituents had been established. These are the research capacity strengthening arm at the Special Programme for Research and Training (MIM/TDR); Communications Network (MIMCom); and the Malaria Research and Reference Reagent Resource (MR4). The 2nd MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference was held 15-19 March 1999 in Durban, South Africa. The conference brought together for the first time malaria research and control communities to define research priorities that would support malaria control programs, View the summary report in PDF format [23k] or view the proceedings in PDF format (requires Adobe's free Acrobat Reader).

MIM Secretariat 1999-2002 at Fogarty International Center, Washington DC, USA


Dr. Andrea Egan
Coordinator 1999-2002

After becoming the 2nd MIM Secretariat host in May 1999, the Fogarty International Center convened the MIM Partners Meeting on 2 December 1999 to refocus the Dakar Recommendations for the 21st Century, and developed the MIM Action Plan for 2000 – 2003. View the summary report. An external review of MIM was commissioned and undertaken from 30 September to 4 October 2002 by a team of seven international scientists, and chaired by Dr Enriqueta C Bond, President, Burroughs Wellcome Fund. The terms of reference were to assess MIM performance in its first five years to facilitate planning for the next five years within the two long-term objectives.

These were to make MIM develop:

1. Solid and smoothly functioning operational systems and organizational capacity to facilitate the Secretariat to eventually rotate permanently among African institutions; and
2. African research capacity enabling the African science to become a full partner and collaborator in malaria research and control.

The review recommendations were discussed and endorsed by the 3rd MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference held 17-22 November 2002 in Arusha, Tanzania. The review report including the recommendations has since been published. View the report

MIM Secretariat 2003-2005 at Stockholm University/Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden


Dr. Andreas Heddini
Coordinator 2003-2005

The first MIM Strategic Advisory Board (MIM SAB) 2003-2005 was appointed, consisting of 11 members of whom 6 represented African institutions. The terms of reference were agreed upon as to provide advice and directions towards:

• Identification of key factors for research capacity building in Africa,
• Advocacy for MIM activities and visibility,
• Identification of potential partnerships for MIM, and
• Development of long-term strategic plans and funding,

The 4th MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference was held 13-18 November 2005 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The conference registered over 1 500 participants from all over the world, and its opening session was graced by the hosting country Prime Minister and Minister for Health. The Conference had 8 plenary sessions, 32 parallel or break away sessions, 23 symposia, 44 exhibitors of health devices, and was covered by over 70 international journalists, with more than 500 press clips in the international media. View conference report

The Secretariat as convenor of the Malaria Research & Development Alliance (MRDA), participated in the Alliance study on global malaria R&D investment on the escalating malaria burden. The study findings showed among other things that the investment was still very low compared to the disease burden and that not all the committed funds were actually disbursed. View the study report

MIM Secretariat 2006-2010 at the African Malaria Network Trust (AMANET),
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania


Prof. Francine Ntoumi
Current Coordinator

Effective from 1 January 2006 AMANET became the first African institution to host the MIM Secretariat. Consultations between the four MIM constituents have been undertaken on the nominations and appointment of the MIM Strategic Advisory Board (MIM SAB) 2006-2010 whose first meeting was held on 28 October 2006 in Cairo, Egypt. A second meeting of the SAB is planned for November 2007 in Philadelphia, USA. A new MIM coordinator joined the Secretariat in August 2007. The Secretariat is currently restructuring to play a more active role in addressing contemporary needs, priorities and challenges of malaria research in Africa.