Summary

Before 2013, the African country Guinea was facing a public health crisis due to the high prevalence of malaria, which put a burden on the country, one of the poorest in the world. In spite of the government’s efforts, the spread of malaria could not be controlled. To address this issue, USAID launched a project called StopPalu in 2013. This was funded by the US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and implemented by RTI International. A community focused project, StopPalu provided capacity building support to local people and health workers to prevent, diagnose, and treat malaria. In 2017, a follow-on project called StopPalu+ was started to provide multiple interventions for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of malaria in collaboration with NGOs and community-based organizations. The StopPalu+ project was slated to end in 2022, after which the government of Guinea needed to take it forward. This case is about the implementation of the StopPalu project and explains how collaborative partnership and a community-focused approach were followed to find a solution to the problem of malaria in Guinea.