Myanmar (Burma)

Active Projects

• Defeat Malaria Activity
• Entomological Field Surveys in Selected High-Risk Dengue Transmission Areas

Overview

Myanmar’s National Strategic Plan for Intensifying Malaria Control and Accelerating Progress toward Malaria Elimination aims to eliminate all forms of malaria by 2030. URC – as a long-time program implementer in Myanmar – has played a substantial role in working towards this goal.

URC work in Myanmar began with the Control and Prevention of Malaria (CAP Malaria) Project in 2011. The project provided technical assistance in health systems strengthening and quality improvement to the National Malaria Control Program, local government units, and other collaborating institutions and promoted positive health-seeking behaviors related to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of malaria in the Greater Mekong Subregion.

Subsequent URC-implemented projects in the country have focused on support for collaborative improvement, social and behavior change, and research and evaluation centered on HIV and AIDS; malaria, maternal, newborn, and child health, noncommunicable diseases; reproductive health and family planning; vulnerable children and families; and water, sanitation, and hygiene.

For example, under the USAID Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems (ASSIST) Project, URC worked with the All-India Institute of Medical Services to teach Myanmar hospital staff to apply quality improvement approaches to the design and implementation of their own maternal and newborn care improvement projects. And through the Malaria Surveillance and Laboratory Quality Assurance Program, URC used quality improvement and health system strengthening methods to strengthen the Ministry of Health’s data management systems for malaria surveillance and laboratory quality assurance systems for malaria diagnosis.

Ongoing URC-implemented projects in Myanmar include the:

• USAID Defeat Malaria Activity, which is focused on strengthening local health systems’ response to changing malaria epidemiological trends, including multi‐drug resistance and insufficiently sensitive malaria testing; and
• Entomological Field Surveys in Selected High-Risk Dengue Transmission Areas Project, which works to survey high-risk dengue fever transmission areas to provide information on mosquito populations as a precursor to dengue control activities.

Across our projects, URC works in partnership with the government and communities and other partners to help strengthen the health system, apply quality improvement approaches for improved health service delivery, and conduct research and evaluation for shared learning related to elimination of malaria, dengue, Zika, and other diseases.