Global Health Business Case Competition: Fighting Malaria in High Burden Countries

This past weekend, the Global Business Center at the UW Foster School of Business, in partnership with the Jackson School’s Center for Global Studies and the UW Department of Global Health, hosted the fourth annual Global Health Business Case Competition. This competition provides a unique opportunity for students to experience hands-on, cross-disciplinary teamwork while tackling a global health challenge. The GBC was fortunate to partner with colleagues at the Jackson School’s Center for Global Studies and the UW Department of Global Health.

On January 26^th, 32 teams (26 undergraduate and 6 graduate) were given ““The Mosquito Network: Collaborative Entrepreneurship in the Fight to Eliminate Malaria Deaths,” a 2016 case written by Gaylen Williams Moore, and published by the Harvard Kennedy School. The case was supplemented with a 2018 article which highlighted how Malaria reduction efforts had recently stalled in the last two years, especially in high burden countries.

The students were asked to take on the role of an Africa-based team of consultants hired by the RBM Partnership to End Malaria. The teams were tasked with recommending how to spend an extra $6 billion on malaria reduction in the context of a new “high burden to high impact” malaria program, an approach that supports countries most affected by malaria. Specifically, students addressed how much would be allocated to the ten high burden countries in Africa and explored why malaria control efforts have not been effective in curbing malaria in these countries. Next, they had to identify the right mix of malaria interventions and best practices for a country where previous efforts proved ineffective.

Students had just 48 hours to do their research and create the slide deck to accompany their presentation. On Saturday morning, January 26th, interdisciplinary UW teams presented their solutions and judges scored teams on their analysis, style, rational, and ability to handle the question and answer session. Judges were impressed by the insightful and creative solutions that students developed after working on this challenging case for a short 48 hours. Teams shared how valuable it was to not only network with global health community members, but also gain valuable experience working with students outside their major. A special thank you to our judges, who represented an array of local businesses and organizations:

Adobe, Amazon Global Fulfillment Services, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Boston Scientific, Center for Infectious Disease Research (CIDR), Forum Solutions, Gandara Strategic Consulting, Global Communications, Golob Partners, International Insight Consulting, Intuitive IP, Microsoft, Healthcare NExT, Nice-Pak, PATH, Point B Consulting, PRONTO International, ROI3 Inc., SapientRazorfish, Seattle Children’s, SightLife, Sun Labs USA Inc, TWG, University of Washington, Village Reach, and Washington Global Health Alliance.

The first, second and third place teams from the undergraduate track are: