Mubita Lifwatila

Mubita Lifwatila has more than 20 years of experience designing, implementing, and managing health and education projects in Southern, East, and West Africa. He has provided technical assistance to national malaria programs to institutionalize improved surveillance systems, data analytics using DHIS2, health information systems, epidemic detection, and rapid response capacities. He also has helped strengthen government systems for education service delivery and implementing strategies for mobilizing community support for education initiatives.

Lifwatila is the chief of party (COP) of the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) VectorLink Project in Tanzania, which supports the implementation of indoor residual spraying (IRS) in mainland Tanzania and in Zanzibar. He supervises five senior managers and leads a field workforce of 4,500 people. Under his leadership, the program introduced IRS in the Mtendeli, Nduta, and Nyarugusu refugee camps, in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Tanzania Ministry of Home Affairs. He also piloted a program to increase the number of women employed as spray operators that resulted in a seasonal workforce that was 42 percent female, achieving a nearly gender-balanced workforce.

Before joining Abt, Lifwatila was vice president of donor programs for BroadReach Inc. in South Africa, where he conducted a collaborative data triangulation and analysis process. This helped programs identify weaknesses in their data collection and analysis processes and then develop interventions to overcome those challenges. Before that, he worked for RTI International as deputy chief of party (DCOP) and later chief of party (COP) for the USAID-Tanzania Vector Control Program, leading efforts for IRS, distribution of insecticide-treated nets, and malaria surveillance and monitoring. Before that, he was the DCOP of RTI under the USAID-Tusome Pamoja Project, an education project in Tanzania.

Expertise

• Leadership
• Capacity building and strengthening
• Education program design and implementation
• Health program design and implementation
• Finance and contracts management

Key Projects

• The PMI VectorLink Project
• Tanzania Vector Control Project
• Human Health Development
• Zambia Integrated Health Systems

Publications

• Dimoso, K., Gitanya, P., Khamis, M., Simba, C., Lifwatila, M., Serbantez, N., Reaves, Miller, J., and Nuñez, L. (2021). Key findings from digitizing supervision of continuous distribution channels for insecticide treated nets in Tanzania, 2019-2020. Abstract presented at the meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Countries Served In

• Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia