OBITUARY– Dr. Mwele Ntuli Malecela
The SACIDS community sadly lost a renowned scientist on 10th February 2022 when Dr. Mwele Ntuli Malecela passed away.
Mwele was born on March 26, 1963 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She was a senior United Nations civil servant and the Director of the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases at the World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Mwele graduated with a BSc in Zoology of the University of Dar es Salaam in 1987 and joined the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) as research scientist at the Amani Research Centre in Muheza in north-east Tanzania.. She later joined the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine of the University of London in the United Kingdom, where she completed her MSc in 1990 and PhD in 1995.
She was appointed NIMR Director of Research Coordination and Promotion (DRCP) in 1998. In 2010 she was appointed NIMR’s Director General, and was the first woman to hold this position. She joined the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa in April 2017 as the Director in the Office of the Regional Director (RD) responsible for providing policy, managerial and diplomatic advice to the RD, coordinating and facilitating the plan of work for all units under the RD’s Office Cluster, and monitoring the implementation of policy decisions of WHO governing bodies. She joined the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa in April 2017 as the Director in the Office of the Regional Director (RD) responsible for providing policy, managerial and diplomatic advice to the RD, coordinating and facilitating the plan of work for all units under the RD’s Office Cluster, and monitoring the implementation of policy decisions of WHO governing bodies. In October 2018 she was appointed appointed the Director of the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, based at the Organization’s headquarters in Geneva, where she was based until her death on 10thof February 2022. Mwele will be remembered for her contribution in research and control of neglected tropical diseases in Tanzania and Africa in general.
