Mwelecele Ntuli Malecela

Abstract

Influential expert on neglected tropical diseases and senior WHO official. Born on March 26, 1963 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, she died from complications related to cancer on Feb 10, 2022 in Geneva, Switzerland, aged 58 years. Mwelecele Malecela became Director of WHO's Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in late 2018, and by early 2021 she had coordinated and launched Ending the Neglect to Attain the Sustainable Development Goals: a Road Map for Neglected Tropical Diseases 2021–2030, WHO's global road map of targets and milestones to prevent, control, and eliminate or eradicate NTDs by 2030. Colleagues said the plan was the culmination of a career as a researcher, strategist, and inspirational leader dedicated to transforming the global NTD response. “It represents her hallmarks of engagement, planning, and envisioning what's possible”, said Ellen Agler, Chief Executive Officer of the END Fund, which helps deliver treatments for NTDs. “If we want to honour Mwele's legacy, we have to live up to the road map.” Malecela grew up in a prominent Tanzanian political family. Her father, John Malecela, held high-profile positions in government, including as Prime Minister and First Vice President. Mwelecele Malecela graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam with a degree in zoology in 1986, before joining Tanzania's National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) the next year. She was initially stationed at NIMR's Amani Medical Research Centre, where she researched lymphatic filariasis. At that time, the centre, in northeastern Tanzania, was “so remote…the roads were fairly bad”, said Deus Ishengoma, the Principal Research Scientist at NIMR in Dar es Salaam. “She was the daughter of a very big politician, but that's where she took her job and started her career. I think she inherited her father's spirit of humility,” Ishengoma said. Malecela's focus on NTDs reflected “her concern for people who are often left out”, said Gautam Biswas, the Director (a.i.) of WHO's Department of Control of NTDs. From Amani, Malecela moved to the UK to study at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, completing a PhD in parasitology in 1995. She returned to NIMR as the Director of Research Coordination and Promotion and seized the opportunity to implement existing interventions as a programme manager “where she ultimately helped millions of people. There's not that many people who can be a research scientist and also do national and global level programming”, Agler said. In 2000, Malecela was appointed the inaugural Director of Tanzania's National Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Programme. “She was emphasising morbidity management in lymphatic filariasis”, Biswas said. In 2010, Malecela became Director-General of NIMR. When Malecela took over, Ishengoma said that NIMR was a collection of loosely affiliated centres. “She came with a vision of one NIMR that plans and implements research that actually alleviates and responds to the needs and expectations of our people”, he said. And as the first woman to lead NIMR, Ishengoma said Malecela also “tried as much as possible to find opportunities for other women”. When Malecela briefly attempted to follow her father into politics, running in Tanzania's 2015 presidential primary elections, Agler said one of the things Malecela enjoyed most was “going to the communities and seeing young girls, the shock on their faces when they see a woman running for president”. Malecela joined WHO in 2017 as the Director in the Office of the Regional Director in the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, where she oversaw policy implementation. A year later, she became Director of the Department of Control of NTDs. With the previous global NTD road map set to expire in 2020, she kick-started the process for drafting a new one. “It was a massive process of engaging with all stakeholders in the NTD community”, said Mark Taylor, Professor of Parasitology and Director of the Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases in the Department of Tropical Disease Biology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK. The new road map is, Taylor said, “a remarkable document that's such a radical review and revision of how we approach NTD control”; the road map introduces cross-cutting approaches to address multiple diseases and also links NTD treatment to other programmes, such as water and sanitation. “She had the brilliance for bringing people together, for the hard work of consensus building, influence, moving an agenda forward, and then coming up with something the community is proud of and aligned around”, Agler said. Malecela is survived by her father, her sisters, Secelela, Mwendwa, and Tully, and her daughters, Naomi and Nenelwa.