Malaria remains one of the greatest global health challenges. Five years ago, at the Malaria Ministerial Conference in London, we learned that, in just four years, 2 billion more children had accessed antimalarial medicine compared to the previous four years. While the world has made significant progress in reducing the malaria burden on children, we observed that very few children remained infected. If medicine alone wasn’t sufficient, what would motivate the next hundred million children to gain protection from this ancient and devastating disease? This article will explore the critical role of advocacy and policy in achieving a step change in child malaria prevention, examining past successes, current challenges, and future opportunities.
The Global Burden of Malaria on Children
Five species of Plasmodium parasites cause malaria, which female Anopheles mosquitoes transmit through their bites. Children under five account for the highest number of infections, and malaria is a leading cause of childhood morbidity and mortality Health Organization (WHO) estimated there were 229 million malaria cases worldwide. Children bore the brunt, accounting for 55 percent of all infections.
The Role of Advocacy in Malaria Prevention
Advocacy often mobilizes resources and sparks awareness and pressure on decision-makers to address a problem. It involves many different players, such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community groups, health practitioners, and affected people themselves. Advocacy can lead to
- Greater Funding: Advocacy can also focus on securing increased financing of malaria control programs, specifically through the purchase and distribution of bed nets, the procurement of diagnostic tools, and ensuring patients have access to antimalarial medicines.
- Policy Development: Advocates also attempt to influence policy-makers to develop and carry out effective malaria control policies (eg, pushing for policies aimed at providing mosquito nets for universal coverage and increasing home and theatre spraying).
- Public Awareness: Advocacy campaigns can educate the public, keeping key issues like malaria prevention, the importance of early diagnosis and treatment, and the need for policy changes at the forefront of people’s minds. This will help to reduce some of the stigmas around death and ill health, encourage community engagement, and lead individuals to change their behavior.
Successful Advocacy Strategies
Several successful advocacy strategies have been employed to drive change in child malaria prevention:
- Campaigns of global scope: Non-governmental organizations like the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and Malaria No More have been mounting global publicity and fundraising campaigns using the media and social media, or high-profile endorsements.
- Community-Based Advocacy: Community-targeted and successful in helping to satisfy local needs and overcome local barriers. Local health workers, community and local leaders, and community-based organizations can all play a role in raising awareness of malaria prevention and treatment in their communities.
- Partnerships and Alliances: Effective advocacy can include building alliances between governments, NGOs, and the private sector. For example, we can make better use of targeted funds such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, which bring together money, technical expertise, and management capacity from different stakeholders to address malaria.
- Data-Driven Advocacy: Increasingly, data and evidence are being used to bolster arguments in favor of advocacy efforts. Malaria control organizations will have to continue to be able to show that their prevention and control work is working, using robust data and evidence from patient outcomes and assessments of the economic impact of malaria.
Policy Changes for Effective Malaria Prevention
Better policy changes aimed at creating the conditions for good malaria control are needed in several critical areas, particularly:
- Proper Universal Access to Prevention Tools: Policies should ensure access to insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor residual spraying, and other such preventive measures for all children and children residing in high-risk areas. You can overcome financial barriers through subsidies or free distribution programs.
- Integrated Health Services: Delivering medical services such as routine immunizations or maternal and child health services can help us reach more children and families.
- Health-systems strengthening: Strong health systems are essential for preventing and treating malaria effectively. Future policies should focus on investing in adequate health infrastructure, training health workers, and maintaining supply chains for medicines and diagnostic items.
- Supporting research and innovation is also vital for creating new mosquito-prevention tools and strategies. Policies should promote research for vaccines, alternative insecticides, and other treatments.
- Surveillance and Response: The existence of robust surveillance systems is critical for the continued monitoring of trends in malaria and rapid responses to outbreaks. Policies must promote the construction of these systems, and aid in the timely and accurate reporting of cases.
Challenges in Advocacy and Policy Implementation
Despite these successes, many barriers remain in the way of forging a better path in child malaria prevention through advocacy and policy:
- Funding Gaps: It’s impossible to implement lifesaving malaria control programs and ensure access to important malaria tools and treatments when the money runs short. The global community needs to keep up the pressure toward sustainable funding.
- Political Will: Politicians often need persuasion to prioritize malaria, especially when faced with competing health commitments or limited resources. Advocates must cultivate political will to ensure malaria remains a high priority on the global health agenda.
- Additionally, some regions have weaknesses in health systems and infrastructure that hinder the effective delivery of malaria prevention services. Dealing with these systemic challenges is the result of coordinated action and long-term investments.
- Resistance to insecticides and drugs: resistance to insecticides and to antimalarial drugs can reduce the efficacy of malaria control programs. Resistance management, and the development of new tools, need to be part of policy.
- Barriers in culture and society: social or cultural beliefs and perceptions can impact the use of available malaria prevention measures. Advocacy efforts should be grounded in a deep understanding of local contexts, actively addressing barriers to behavior change.
Future Directions for Advocacy and Policy
With progress still needed to further prevent malaria in children, attention to emerging challenges and opportunities in advocacy and policy are the next frontier, like:
- Technology-Aided: Leveraging mobile health tools, digital data collection, and other technological advancements can greatly inform malaria prevention strategies. Therefore, we need to advocate for the integration of technology in malaria programs and research to enhance effectiveness and reach.
- Forging Regional Cooperation: Regional cooperation is vital for improving malaria prevention, as it ensures that valuable resources, skills, and best practices are shared.
- Equity: Malaria prevention strategies must specifically target the most vulnerable populations. To achieve this, policies should include measures that address disparities in access to prevention tools and health services, particularly for marginalized and remote communities.
- Sustainable Solutions: Moreover, the sustainability of a malaria prevention program must be forward-thinking. Beneficiary communities should aim to become self-reliant as soon as possible. Thus, advocacy and policy efforts should facilitate an increase in local production of bed nets and support community-based health initiatives.
- Increased Youth and Community Engagement: Youth and communities play a pivotal role in collective action to combat malaria. Consequently, advocacy activities should be designed to encourage their participation in formulating and implementing prevention efforts, ensuring that their voices are heard and their contributions valued.
In terms of prevention, advocacy and policy efforts should lead the show. By speaking out, mobilizing stakeholders, and influencing appropriate policies, we will start to reduce the burden that malaria brings to our children. Despite the challenges facing advancing an effective response to child illness, advocacy, and policy development will play a crucial role in solving the necessary obstacles. Equity, innovation, and collaboration will ensure that we all remain motivated to reduce and, ultimately, end the malaria outbreaks that continue to harm the lives of children.
