Progress, Interrupted: Malaria’s Uneven Gains Amid New Threats & A Changing Funding Landscape
Date and Time
The Harvard Chan School of Public Health's Defeating Malaria - From the Genes to Globe Initiative is hosting a symposium on global health financing, data-driven policy, and the future of malaria elimination on November 13, 2026, from 2–4 p.m. at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The conversation will begin with opening remarks Zoe Marks, Oppenheimer Faculty Director of CAS, alongside panelists and experts in public health, disease modeling, and health analytics. A networking reception will follow immediately.
Since 2000, malaria control has averted more than two billion cases and saved nearly 13 million lives. Yet progress has stalled, and the gains have been uneven. Some districts are approaching elimination while others carry much of the burden. Climate change, human mobility, and drug and insecticide resistance are reshaping risk as funding contracts.
Countries are increasingly turning to subnational tailoring: using surveillance data, modeling, and local evidence to determine which interventions are needed where. This conversation will explore how targeted approaches can make limited resources go further—and what it takes to sustain the data, expertise, and institutions behind them.
Date: November 13, 2026
Time: 2–4 p.m., followed by a networking reception
Location: Kresge, Snyder Auditorium (G1), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Featured speakers
- Caroline Buckee, PhD — Deputy Director, Eradication and Elimination, Institute for Disease Modeling at the Gates Foundation; Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- Jaline Gerardin, PhD — Director, Analytics, Applied Health Analytics for Delivery and Innovation (AHADI)
- Zoe Marks, PhD — Oppenheimer Faculty Director, Center for African Studies, Harvard University; Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
- Abdisalan M. Noor, PhD — Executive Director, AHADI; Visiting Professor, Harvard Chan School
- Dyann F. Wirth, PhD — Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Infectious Diseases, Harvard Chan School
All speakers will share their own perspectives; they do not speak for Harvard University.
Co-Sponsors: Harvard Center for African Studies (CAS)
Harvard Chan's Nigerian Student Association
