title: Ecologists can enable communities to implement malaria vector control in Africa.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Integrated vector management (IVM) for malaria control requires ecological skills that are very scarce and rarely applied in Africa today. Partnerships between communities and academic ecologists can address this capacity deficit, modernize the evidence base for such approaches and enable future scale up.
  
  
  METHODS
  Community-based IVM programmes were initiated in two contrasting settings. On Rusinga Island, Western Kenya, community outreach to a marginalized rural community was achieved by University of Nairobi through a community-based organization. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Ilala Municipality established an IVM programme at grassroots level, which was subsequently upgraded and expanded into a pilot scale Urban Malaria Control Programme with support from national academic institutes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both programmes now access relevant expertise, funding and policy makers while the academic partners benefit from direct experience of community-based implementation and operational research opportunities. The communities now access up-to-date malaria-related knowledge and skills for translation into local action. Similarly, the academic partners have acquired better understanding of community needs and how to address them.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Until sufficient evidence is provided, community-based IVM remains an operational research activity. Researchers can never directly support every community in Africa so community-based IVM strategies and tactics will need to be incorporated into undergraduate teaching programmes to generate sufficient numbers of practitioners for national scale programmes. Academic ecologists at African institutions are uniquely positioned to enable the application of practical environmental and entomological skills for malaria control by communities at grassroots level and should be supported to fulfil this neglected role.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya. rmukabana@uonbi.ac.ke
authors.forename: W Richard
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Mukabana
authors.forename: Khadija
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kannady
authors.forename: G Michael
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Kiama
authors.forename: Jasper N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Ijumba
authors.forename: Evan M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Mathenge
authors.forename: Ibrahim
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kiche
authors.forename: Gamba
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nkwengulila
authors.forename: Leonard
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mboera
authors.forename: Deo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mtasiwa
authors.forename: Yoichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamagata
authors.forename: Ingeborg
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: van Schayk
authors.forename: Bart G J
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Knols
authors.forename: Steven W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lindsay
authors.forename: Marcia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Caldas de Castro
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mshinda
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanner
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Fillinger
authors.forename: Gerry F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Killeen
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles; D018672:Community Health Planning / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003256:Community Participation / Q000379:methods; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors; D008288:Malaria / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D009032:Mosquito Control / Q000379:methods*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012424:Rural Population; D014505:Urban Population