Bienvenue! Akwaaba! Merhaba! Selam! Welcome! I’m Craig Jaggers, policy advisor for health and education at World Vision. I am based in Washington, D.C., and for good reason – a majority of my time is spent seeking to influence the decisions and legislation developed by leaders in Congress and the Administration that impact global health issues, particularly malaria. As a co-leader of the malaria campaign, I not only focus on influencing U.S. policy, but also serve as one of our primary malaria spokespersons.

Craig Jaggers

In my position, I keep an ear to the ground of the happenings in Washington, D.C. that have an impact on malaria and seek to represent the voices of those who don’t have a powerful lobby in this town – the world’s poor who are affected by malaria. That often entails collaborating with Congressional staff to draft a piece of legislation or host an educational event, meeting with Administration officials to discuss budget levels or best practices for malaria control activities, and even getting the word out to mobilize grassroots efforts.

Defeating malaria requires the concerted efforts of many people from the highest levels of government down to the household level where the disease has its most tangible impact. Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to work at both ends of this spectrum, giving me valuable insight into how the U.S. government can impact malaria at the community level and an understanding of how to translate this to our nation’s leaders. For a number of years, I worked for a member of Congress as a health policy advisor and obtained my Masters in Public Health with a focus on International Health Policy.  Prior to joining World Vision, I also assisted in emergency feeding programs and worked with refugees in countries including Ethiopia and Egypt.

It was a trip to a developing country at a young age that has served to motivate me over the years. Seeing poverty and poor health so early in life shaped the direction of my career. Living in Ethiopia later in life really brought it home, as I lived among families literally losing children to starvation and saw children suffering from diseases that were easily preventable. Knowing the child deaths I observed happen nearly 9 million times a year (and are preventable!), has kept me motivated.

Malaria matters to me because the memory of those children suffering from it is forever seared into my mind. This is a disease that is entirely preventable – but not without each one of us.