Engaging the Donor Community The MERIT Experience Dr. David Rogers, Health and Climate Foundation

MENINGITIS RISK REDUCTION Brief overview of the MERIT Project

Meningitis Epidemic Risk Factors Migration spreads disease over large distances Demographic Poverty delays or prevents distribution of vaccines Economic Hot, dry dusty conditions irritate nose and throat making invasion of blood stream easier Environmental Vulnerability influenced by immune status, new strains, carriage rates and other disease factors Epidemiological Crowded living conditions Social

Partnership WHO, GEO, WMO Intergovernmental IRI, LSHTM, LSTM, Inst. Pasteur… Academia Min. Health … Governmental Meningitis Vaccine Project (incl. Gates), IFRC, HCF… Non-Governmental / Private / Public Foundations / etc

Treating Meningitis Early Warning Identification of potential epidemic must happen quickly for a response to be effective Vaccine Inexpensive, long- lived vaccine must be available Pro-active Response Respond to risk threshold rather than epidemic threshold

CAPACITY BUILDING What is Needed Now and GEOs Role

Building Capacity – Delivering Public Health Benefits Global data warehouse Disease Environment Demographic Social Logistic Donor reporting National, district & local reports Identification of disease cases Regional Surveillance Integration of data from all sources Analysis Guidance Early warning of meningitis epidemics Risk assessment National, district and local decisions Deployment of public health resources Intervention Early application of vaccine 1.5M for Infrastructure (IT donors; e.g., Google, Packard) MERIT research and development – various sources of funding (Nat research councils, EU, donors) Possibly GATES Foundation National budgets + donor support for education and Training (Possibly HCF and IFRC) Aid agencies and possibly private insurance

GEO Role Funding strategy is as important to the success of a project as the science plan Each project component has a different potential sponsor Each sponsor wants credit for the overall societal benefit of the project Donor engagement through GEO must be at the project level; i.e., Specific Project financing requires active management