2008 Finalist—Science and Environment Medal

This award will recognize a federal employee for a significant contribution to the nation in activities related to science and environment (including biomedicine, economics, energy, information technology, meteorology, resource conservation and space). This medal is accompanied by a $3,000 award.

Richard Greene

Position: Director, Office of Health, Infectious Diseases and Nutrition

Agency: U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau of Global Health

Location: Washington, D.C.

Residence: Oakton, Virginia

Achievement: Designed and launched the President’s Malaria Initiative, which has provided potentially life-saving services to more than 25 million vulnerable people

 

Malaria claims the lives of 1 million children in Africa each year. What makes these losses even more tragic is the fact that malaria is both preventable and treatable. The U.S. Agency for International Development’s Richard Greene is the day-to-day manager of an unprecedented government effort to fight this deadly disease. And it’s succeeding. Within its first two years, this effort provided services to 25 million children and pregnant women, and these services are having the ultimate impact: they are saving lives.

In June 2005, President Bush launched the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and pledged more than $1.2 billion over five years to reduce deaths due to malaria by 50 percent in 15 countries. To achieve this goal, the initiative sought to reach 85 percent of children under five and pregnant women with the tools needed to prevent and treat malaria, such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets, anti-malarial drugs and spraying homes with insecticides.

The PMI is an interagency initiative led by USAID with the Department of Health and Human Service’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the key partner. The effort is overseen by a coordinator appointed by the President. Richard Greene, who was already running USAID’s central office to combat infectious diseases abroad, including malaria and tuberculosis, was chosen to develop the plan and launch the initiative.

When taking on a disease that kills a child in Africa every 30 seconds, it is not enough to simply purchase the insecticides, nets and medicines, and give them to the countries that need them. To make the PMI most effective, Richard Greene has provided hands-on leadership to establish supply chains and other management systems that ensure these life-saving supplies reach the people that need them. The PMI trains residents in remote villages to become community health workers, who in turn educate the community and distribute the resources to prevent and treat malaria. The PMI also improves malaria diagnosis and treatment practices in public and private health facilities. Ultimately, the PMI helps to build grassroots service delivery networks that have the potential to dramatically reduce the burden of malaria in Africa.

The results achieved during the first two years of this program have been remarkable. In its first year, the initiative reached more than 6 million people with insecticide –treated mosquito nets, spraying and therapeutic drugs. By the end of its second year, it had protected more than 17 million people through spraying, distributed more than 4.7 million insecticide-treated nets and distributed life-saving drugs to 6.2 million people. In year three, the program expanded from eight countries to 15.

Clear evidence of the program’s success can be seen on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar where 20 percent of children tested positive for malaria before PMI began its support. After two years of indoor spraying and net distribution, the percentage of children testing positive for malaria in Zanzibar was down to one percent. There is similar evidence that the burden of malaria is being dramatically reduced as a direct result of PMI in other regions of Tanzania, plus Malawi and Uganda.

Richard Greene’s dedication and leadership were critical to the program’s early success. He led the day-to-day implementation of the plan, and he is credited with mobilizing programs and helping to launch services (and supporting systems) in record time while tailoring different approaches to fit the needs of each individual country. He has led his own team from USAID, coordinating their efforts with staff at CDC as well as government officials in host countries and multi-national institutions. The Lancet, a respected British medical journal, praised the initiative for its flexible, transparent and collaborative approach.

Greene’s work on the President’s Malaria Initiative is the pinnacle of a life spent in service to others around the globe. He began his career as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Ivory Coast in 1978. After taking a job with USAID in 1984, he spent 15 consecutive years overseas in places ranging from Sudan to Cameroon to Bangladesh. He eventually settled in as the head of USAID’s Office of Health, Infectious Diseases and Nutrition in the Bureau for Global Health, and he has put the agency on the cutting edge of addressing key global health issues. He launched he agency’s avian influenza work, which has expanded to 50 countries. His team also built a program to combat neglected tropical diseases, which delivered more than 35 million treatments in its first full year. In 2008, his office is launching a new program to reduce maternal and child deaths in more than 30 countries.

The President’s Malaria Initiative and these other efforts represent America at its best, exemplifying the generosity of the American people and our commitment to helping those most in need. In that same vein, Richard Greene represents government at its best. He reminds us that when we come together in service of a common cause, we discover the best in ourselves and we can transform the lives of others across the globe.

 

© 2008 Partnership for Public Service