The Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership has named a new board to lead the global organization into a new era and drive momentum to end malaria for good.

The intensified, collaborative effort by RBM partners to support affected countries to end malaria is saving millions of lives, increasing attendance at school, improving worker productivity and boosting local economies. But malaria remains a serious public health threat. Eliminating malaria is critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and must remain a key priority for the global development community.

In the middle of December 2013, the RBM Board commissioned an external evaluation to ensure the Partnership was well positioned to drive continued momentum towards a malaria-free world This evaluation concluded that significant adjustments to RBM’s structure would be necessary to sustain its successes and build on them to deliver on the ambitious goals and objectives of the 2030 WHO Global Technical Strategy (GTS) and accompanying RBM Action and Investment to defeat Malaria (AIM).

After a period of extensive consultation, the RBM Board agreed at its 29th Meeting in December 2015 on a new governance architecture. This included the establishment of a reconstituted Partnership Board, which could take advantage of the tremendous skill, energy and effectiveness of its partners and lead the organization into a new era with a focus on ending malaria. As a result, a transparent public nomination process was announced in January 2016 to identify outstanding new Board members.

The response to the call for nominations was overwhelming: more than 100 nominations were received from the wide malaria and related multi-sectoral community, including government, civil society, non-government organisations, the private sector, donor funding organisations (governmental, multilateral or private philanthropic), and research and academia.

After a robust assessment and selection process 13 individuals have been chosen to take the revitalised Partnership forward, along with an additional Board member to be named by the WHO:

  • Mr Elhadj As Sy, Secretary General, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
  • Mr Simon Bland, Director – New York Office, UNAIDS
  • Prof Awa Coll-Seck, Minister of Health & Social Welfare, Senegal
  • Mr Kieran Daly, Deputy Director: Global Policy & Advocacy – Malaria, HIV, TB and the Global Fund, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Mr Paolo Gomes, Chairman, Paulo Gomes and Partners, former Executive Director, World Bank
  • Dr Richard Nchabi Kamwi, Elimination 8 Ambassador, former Minister of Health, Namibia
  • Dr Altaf Lal, Senior Advisor on Global Health and Innovation, Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries
  • Dr Winnie Mpanju-Shumbusho, former Assistant Director General – Malaria, HIV, TB, NTDs, WHO
  • Mr Ray Nishimoto, President of Health & Crop Sciences Sector, Sumitomo Chemical
  • Dr David Reddy, Chief Executive, Medicines for Malaria Venture
  • Mr Gu Xueming, President of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation
  • HE Yongyuth Yuthavong, Deputy Prime Minister, Thailand
  • Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer USN (ret), Global Co-ordinator, US President’s Malaria Initiative

 

This new Partnership Board includes individuals with deep expertise and experience at a senior decision-making level as well as representation from across the Partnership, including malaria-affected countries, private sector, civil society, donor funding organisations, and entities outside the malaria and health sectors, civil society and donors.

In confirming the result of the vote the current Board Chair the Honorable Victor Makwenge Kaput stated that he believed that the individuals selected:

“represented an impressive group of distinctly qualified individuals who will be well-positioned to take the RBM Partnership to a new level in its evolution.”

The new Board are expected to assume responsibility for leading the Partnership from April 2016 and RBM are confident that the changes to the architecture of the Partnership will result in a strengthened malaria partnership well-positioned to support the delivery of the ambitious goal of Ending Malaria for Good.