AGREEMENT FOR PERFORMANCE OF WORK (APW) with WHO

AGREEMENT FOR PERFORMANCE OF WORK (APW) with WHO for the “Best practices for mosquito control in built-up areas”

Recognizing the need for guidance on best practices for mosquito control in Europe, the 10^th EMCA workshop held in Mendrisio, Switzerland in November 2022, for the first time in the history of the association, was intended to be an interactive meeting with discussion sessions about different topics of mosquito control aiming at a consensus about best practices in the different fields that should be used when running Integrated Mosquito Management projects.

We are happy to announce that a close communication between the EMCA Board and WHO (World Health Organization) followed which led to the support by TDR (Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) to develop a handbook on “Best practices for mosquito control in built-up areas” that the EMCA will deliver to WHO until 31/12/2023. The APW has been signed on 05/06/2023.

There will be three distinct expert groups with distinct responsibilities on the best practices document:

1. The Guidelines Development Group (GDG)
2. The Systematic Review Team (SRT)
3. External Review Group (ERG)

With the support and under the coordination of an executive coordinator, the GDG will be responsible for the writing of the document. During the development of the document separate chapters will be shared with and discussed within the EMCA Working Group for Best practices which is open to the whole EMCA community (active EMCA members) to express their opinion and to identify gaps or missing mosquito control practices that could be evaluated.

The independent SRT will be composed of 3 external experts and/or experts from the EMCA who will be nominated by the GDG and will perform systematic and/or scoping literature review for distinct topics of the best practices.

The ERG will be composed of 5-10 potential operational end users for the best practices and will be nominated by TDR.

The objectives of this project are to:

1. Provide professional guidance for sustainable mosquito control in built-up areas
2. Promote sustainable and cost-efficient mosquito control methods
3. Provide knowledge about alternatives to mosquito control methods currently affecting the environment such as adulticiding

The final deliverable, the handbook of best practices will be freely accessible and will be distributed within the EMCA community.