The Shire Valley Vector Control Project

The Shire-Vec project will focus its research on the Shire Valley Transformation programme (SVTP), a new 40,000-hectare irrigation scheme, which began construction in 2020 based in the districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje in the southern region of Malawi. The Shire-Vec project will investigate how the new irrigation scheme affects VBDs like malaria and schistosomiasis and their influence on smallholder farming practices. The Shire-Vec project will offer practical solutions to manage the impact of the SVTP across both public health and agriculture.

In this collaboration, AFIDEP is leading efforts to integrate VBD management into Malawi’s agricultural and irrigation policy.

• Determine the mechanisms through which vector-borne disease management can be integrated into agricultural and irrigation policy.
• Build capacity of researchers in Policy Engagement and Evidence Uptake
• Management and monitoring for project implementation

• Vector-borne disease management integrated into identified agricultural and irrigation policy by 2025.
• Increased capacity of researchers to engage policy and ensure uptake of their findings by 2025
• Monitored and tracked progress for implementation of the project throughout the implementation period

The Shire-Vec project is a research collaboration between Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS), Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Clinical Research Programme (MLW), and African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), with funding from National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).