The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a $35 million grant to Seattle-based PATH, an organization that works to create culturally relevant solutions which enable communities worldwide to break longstanding cycles of poor health, to launch a partnership to accelerate and document the impact of progress toward meeting Zambia's malaria-control targets.

The immediate goals of the Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership in Africa (MACEPA), an in-country collaboration between PATH, the government of Zambia, and the Zambia Roll Back Malaria Partnership, are to support the coordination of a rapid implementation of proven malaria-control strategies — including insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor mosquito control, and effective medication — with the aim of reaching 80 percent of Zambia's population and reducing malaria-related deaths by 75 percent within three years. Working with country leadership, MACEPA will provide technical support for program planning, implementation, performance monitoring, and the development of impact evaluation systems that document, in human and economic terms, the importance of continued investment in malaria control in Zambia and serve as a model for use in other African countries.

"We think that this partnership can establish the value of scaled-up, national malaria control as the gold standard in Africa," said Regina Rabinovich, director of the Gates Foundation's infectious diseases program. "A successful program of this magnitude will encourage both donor countries and developing countries to devote greater resources to fighting malaria."