Malaria remains a significant global health challenge. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2020 the geographic focus remained on sub-Saharan Africa and to a lesser extent Southeast Asia and the Americas. As malaria imposes a heavy burden on healthcare systems and financial resources, it is increasingly important to target everyday care and treatment in ways that can bring the biggest preventive and curative benefits for those most affected. In this regard, gender is emerging as perhaps the most important common lens that can be used to enhance malaria control.
Understanding the Gendered Impact of Malaria
1. Increased Vulnerability and Impact on Women
Women are disproportionately affected by malaria due to their social roles and gender norms, which can expose them to an increased risk of mosquito bites. For example, in many endemic malaria settings, women are responsible for the majority of household chores, like fetching water and caring for children, all of which increase the potential for mosquito exposure. Furthermore, pregnant women may be at heightened risk: malaria can lead to significant maternal and fetal complications such as anemia, preterm birth, and fetal death, and low birth weight can lead to both short- and long-term health problems for newborns.
2. Caregiving Responsibilities
As primary caregivers for their families, women often spend the most time and money on child and family healthcare. When malaria strikes, it’s not uncommon for a woman to care for the ill, take family members to health facilities, and bear the financial burden and disruption to their families’ economic lives. These caring responsibilities drain women’s time and money, thereby compounding cycles of poverty and ill health.
3. Limited Access to Resources
Gender inequalities can diminish women’s access to resources required to reduce exposure to the parasite, seek treatment promptly, and participate in malaria education efforts. Women, for example, are often less able to access healthcare services, education, and financial resources than men. This limited access may interfere with their ability to seek prompt treatment, acquire insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), or participate in other malaria prevention initiatives.
The Role of Empowering Women in Malaria Prevention and Treatment
1. Enhancing Access to Healthcare
Women’s empowerment can also improve access to healthcare services. When women are knowledgeable about malaria and have the means to visit a medical provider, they are more likely to take preventative steps to preserve the health of themselves and their families. Community-based health programs that target women, provide health education, and facilitate access to medical services can make a measurable impact on malaria outcomes.
2. Strengthening Community Health Initiatives
It is women who are very likely to spearhead community health programs that increase awareness of, or knowledge about, health issues or organize communal action against malaria, such as collective bed net distribution. When women have access to information, and opportunities to gain skills, they are better equipped to have an impact. In addition to demonstrating evidence of their potential efficacy, such interventions can benefit from women’s insider knowledge of households and from their ability to encourage discussions within their social circles. This can in turn improve outreach and adherence to malaria control measures.
3. Promoting Involvement in Decision-Making
Fostering said women’s empowerment to promote their participation in polio-related decision-making processes could brighten the prospects of innovative solutions that are more comprehensive, inclusive, and imaginative since they also take into account women’s experiences and perspectives. This would include giving women a greater voice on health committees, polio policy committees, and polio program planning.
4. Supporting Economic Empowerment
Malaria has reinforced and accelerated existing social inequalities, and such inequalities can also constrain the effectiveness of health-producing activities. Economic empowerment of women is especially important, as greater control over financial resources was associated with better health outcomes for women. Programs that offer microloans and savings or income-generating schemes can help to reduce the economic burden of malaria, enabling women to afford to buy an ITN or anti-malarial medications.
5. Addressing Gender-Based Violence
Gender-based violence can amplify the impacts of malaria where women’s health and autonomy are themselves constrained, so improving these could indeed reduce the impact of malaria on women in all settings. However, these results also support the idea that promoting women’s health and well-being through services to address violence against women will have positive spillover effects on their wider malaria outcomes.
Case Studies of Successful Women-Centered Malaria Initiatives
1. The Women’s Empowerment Program in Nigeria
Nigeria had its own Women’s Empowerment Programme based on community capacity, where women trained as malaria health champions encouraged community involvement and improved malaria control. As reported in The Lancet, malaria health champions participated in community care activities to encourage ITN use, healthcare-seeking behavior, and targeted preventive strategies for pregnant women and children under the age of five. Community engagement using the empowerment program resulted in a marked improvement in malaria outcomes.
2. The Malaria Consortium’s “Safe Space” Initiative
The ‘Safe Space’ initiative of the Malaria Consortium, a non-profit organization, works to equip women in the malaria endemic regions of Cameroon and Malawi with the tools and support network to help themselves by conducting health education, resource distribution, and discussion groups in the village and local level women’s groups. In these ‘Safe Spaces’, women can talk and learn about malaria and related issues; gather information and provide mutual support. Over time, the initiative has had positive effects on improving women’s health and health practices.
3. The “Sankalp” Initiative in India
The Sankalp initiative in India involves the training of women as ‘Health Promoters’ who provide information about the causes of malaria, distribute ITNs, and promote the use of health services. Women’s work within and for their communities has proved an effective way of strengthening malaria control and improving health outcomes.
Strategies for Further Empowerment
1. Investing in Education
Education can also empower women, which in turn can help create a behavior change for the entire family. Investing in girls’ and women’s education would give women higher health literacy and help them make informed decisions about ways to prevent and treat malaria. Education programs should be designed to specifically target malaria so that women are aware of how to prevent malaria, recognize the symptoms, and seek medical care in time.
2. Building Support Networks
By creating support networks peer groups and community organizations women can become stronger political advocates for safeguarding their health and that of their families. These networks enhance access to information and health services that protect against malaria transmission. Support networks can provide emotional support as well as material resources, and together amplify women’s voices in malaria control efforts.
3. Enhancing Health Services Accessibility
It should be accessible to women – whether via mobile clinics and community health workers providing home visits or via a local health service – so that they receive treatment or preventive care when they first feel unwell. Health services should be built around women’s lives, with services provided at hours that work for them, and in a way that is respectful and supportive.
4. Advocating for Policy Change
Although we might not be able to eliminate malaria, the rapid advancements being made in treatment and mosquito control strategies offer the possibility of at least greatly reducing the disease over the next decade. Even if such efforts fail, demanding gender-sensitive policies now could set up a system of change that benefit women positively in the future. Policies that remove gendered inequities in healthcare access, provide support for caregivers, and facilitate women’s inclusion in health decision-making would make malaria prevention and treatment more effective.
Gender is not just a consideration in malaria control; it is a key part of it. Because women are responsible for people’s welfare, they’re often the most proactive member of a household in preventing disease; they’re typically the primary decision-makers within their families; and they often serve as the leaders of their communities.
