Cameroon launches the MIM Secretariat
14 October 2010
On Friday, 15 October 2010, Cameroon shall officially launch the Secretariat of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM). The launching ceremony that be placed under the distinguished patronage of the First Lady of Cameroon, Mme Chantal Biya, will be graced with the presence of Ministers of Higher Education and Public Health of Cameroon. Participants actively engaged in the fight against malaria are invited to man stands and display their expertise at the exposition village of the grand event.
The University of Yaounde I will be the next host of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Secretariat. The move to Cameroon is expected to being July 2010 and will be completed in January 2011. Prof Rose Leke, Director of the Biotechnology Centre (BTC), will be the Chair of the MIMSEC, and will be assisted by the Northern Partner Dr Peter De Vries of the Amsterdam Medical Centre, Holland as Deputy Chair and Prof Wilfred Mbacham of the University of Yaounde I as the Executive Director.
The MIM is a network to build capacity among African Scientists to conduct malaria research. It is an alliance of institutions and individuals and was established in 1997 with the support of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), The Wellcome Trust (WT), UK, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) of the WHO. The organising secretariat was first set up in London at WT and subsequently at Fogarty International Centre at NIH, then at the Karolinska Institute at Stockhom University and for the first time in 2006, it moved to Africa at the AMANET in Tanzania and now at the BTC, University of Yaounde in Cameroon.
