On 4-6 October 2010, Malaria Consortium, as one of the partners in MMP and ACTMalaria, organized the Regional Operational Research (OR) Symposium at Asara Angko Hotel, Siem Riep, Cambodia with the purpose of bringing together country programmes of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), partners, academic and research institutions, and other key stakeholders to identify the regional operational research priorities and to develop a useful OR framework/agenda for the region.
Participants to this international symposium included the directors of malaria and vector-borne diseases institutes under the health ministries of 6 GMS countries of Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam; experts from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (or CDC) in the world, universities and WHO Western Pacific Region (WPRO). Two Vietnamese representatives from the national malaria programme were Dr. Nguyen Manh Hung-Director of the National Institute of Malariology Entomology and Parasitology (NIMPE) and Dr. Trieu Nguyen Trung-Director of the Institute of Malariology Entomology and Parasitology Quy Nhon (IMPE Quy Nhon).
The Mekong Malaria Programme (MMP) Core Partners meetings and the 13th and 14th ACTMalaria Excutive Board and Partners Meetings in Lao PDR haveidentifiedthe importanceof an OR framework/agenda for the GMS. Having such an OR agenda wold help highlight the research priorities for the region as well as advocate for much needed resources and opportunities to conduct important research to address current knowledge gaps.The objectives of the GMS Malaria Operational Research Symposium 2010 are to share/exchange information about research activities recently conducted or planned by national programmes; to identify country priorities, needs, and gaps in carrying out OR towards strengthening malaria control and elimination; to formulate a malaria OR agenda for the GMS with inputs from national programmes, partners, research institutions, and other key stakeholders.
In 3 days of working, the worshop listened the presentation of GMS countries' representatives about their country's OR activities and plans, malaria strategic goals and objectives, current and implemented OR, and existing knowledge gaps needed to be filled to achieve strategic goals. The specialists of WHO and other research organizations presented current OR advances in a changing malaria epidemiology and resistance containment in terms of vector control, migrants and molile populations, surveillance, case management, Plasmodium vivax/G6PD, and Plasmidium falciparum elimination. The symposium also held group work to prioritize key OR questions and identify country needs, including internal and external technical support, HR, financial, IT gaps.
After the plenary discussion, the workshop summarized the general malaria OR orientation for the GMS countries as follows: there is wide range of OR conducted in each of the GMS countries; national programmes, some partners, researchers, donors, and other stakeholders have identified overlapping priority areas: Vector Control, Diagnosis and Treatment, G6PD, Plasmodium vivax and Primaquine use, Vulnerable populations, M&E/Surveillance (including for elimination and resistance) and Health Systems (including private sector). Participants prioritized key OR questions for each priority area; the need for human resource capacity building, improved coordination and information sharing, and increased funding for OR in the region were highlighted as key gaps; some new tools and strategies have been piloted as operational research for migrants and mobile populations (e.g., RDS, Positive Deviance, etc), but there is a need for more innovation, including strengthened surveillance and inter-sectoral collaboration to address migrants; BCC (Behavior Change Communication) is cross-cutting and there is a need to better understand demand-side factors through qualitative research, reaching vulnerable populations, measuring impact of BCC interventions. There is a significant information gap from the private sector and more OR is needed (e.g., Public-Private Mix strategies); OR requires a multi-disciplinary approach and an enabling environment to ensure results are translated to policy.
The key recommendations were also brought out by Malaria Consortium such as establish/strengthen links with universities and other research institutions to build up cadre of researchers and capacity-building; encourage annual workshops at country level to review and plan research activities and priorities; ensure that adequate systems are in place to facilitate translating research into practice and policy; build on existing database for OR by reviewing and consolidating previous, current, and future research in the GMS (including mapping and GIS) - need to be updated regularly and a forum for sharing regionally.
After the Regional Operational Research Symposium, Malaria Consortium will distribute draft framework and meeting report to participants and other key stakeholders for further feedback prior to finalization and dissemination as well as advocate for this Regional OR framework to be taken up in other regional plans (e.g., WPRO RRPA)