Malaria Modeling Field-Strengthening: MMALA

Sheetal Silal of the University of Cape Town in South Africa will establish the Malaria Modeling and Analytics: Leaders in Africa (MMALA) program to promote the training and career development of a critical mass of African malaria modelers that can support decision making of national malaria control programs (NMCPs). They will increase the number of PhD-trained mathematical modelers with malaria expertise in sub-Saharan Africa institutions, and foster relationships with NCMPs from Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Benin, Cameroon, and Ghana including providing literacy training workshops. Twelve PhD candidates will be selected and provided with complementary coursework, research skills development, and secondment opportunities at their local NMCPs. They will also hold regional and central events to help build networks and share expertise across this cohort of modelers and develop an open web resource for malaria.