In Uganda, more than 95 percent of the country has stable malaria transmission, with malaria infections occurring all year round. Although malaria affects both men and women of all ages, gender and youth dynamics play a key role in determining health outcomes for individuals. Maternal, newborn and child health indicators are poor, unevenly distributed across the country and worse in specific vulnerable populations – 28 percent of maternal deaths occur in young women aged 15 to 24 years – and there here remains a shortage in healthcare workers. We work with the Ministry of Health and project partners to improve integrated community case management and strengthen disease surveillance, identifying gaps in coverage through the lens of gender and youth.
In Uganda, we have led in the distribution of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs)– through mass distribution campaigns as well as continuous distribution at health facilities. Through our work on integrated community case management (iCCM) and social and behaviour change (SBC), we provide evidence to scale up innovative approaches to target malaria and other childhood diseases. Our implementation research supports the strengthening of surveillance systems and monitoring and evaluation efforts to ensure the timely use of quality data.
In support of Uganda’s National Malaria Control Strategy, USAID’s five-year Malaria Action Program for Districts (MAPD), which ran from 2016-2021, Malaria Consortium sought to reduce maternal and childhood morbidity and mortality due to malaria.
Together with Banyan Global, we conducted a qualitative study to identify how gender- and youth-related norms might be hindering effective malaria control in Uganda.