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Zambia and MACEPA learning together to
control malaria
Dr. Kent Campbell,
MACEPA Program Director |
Photo: PATH (David Jacobs).
Malaria free children can attend school and live an active life.
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Dear Colleagues,
There is much good news to share in this, the second edition of MACEPA News. PATH
received a $29 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for MACEPA to establish a Learning Community of up to five African countries,
which will receive technical and financial assistance and will have access to the tools and methods currently being developed and tested in
Zambia for scaling up national malaria prevention and control. This is an exciting opportunity to help countries transform the business of malaria
control and spotlight their progress. We look forward to keeping you apprised of our country engagement progress during the first half of 2007.
We have had a strong start to our third year of collaboration with Zambia and its national
Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partners, developing a 2007 Action Plan
that builds on lessons and challenges of 2006. Zambia distributed more than one million insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) last year (and
recently succeeded in making nets available at all public antenatal clinics in the country) and will distribute more than twice that number in 2007,
placing it well on its way toward reaching its goal of 80 percent coverage of targeted households. And the selection of Zambia as a US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) country means that there
are even more resources being brought to bear to achieve these goals.
With unprecedented funds and attention being paid to the disease globally, it is indeed a
unique era for malaria control in Zambia, in Africa, and in the world. Partners at all levels are realizing that coordination and commitment are the
keys to success. The opportunities are great and the stakes are high. It is in this spirit that MACEPA is striving to support and document
extraordinary accomplishment.
We continue to welcome your comments, questions, and reflections on our work and on the
challenges we all face in tackling malaria. Please drop us a note at macepa@path.org.
My best to you all,
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Partners’ voices: new plans and
opportunities
Chilandu Mukuka, NMCC
Deputy Coordinator |
Photo: PATH (Cristina Herdman).
Formal validation of the 2007 Action Plan.
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This year brings unparalleled promise and ambitious plans for tackling malaria in Zambia.
And so it was with great honor that I recently assumed the role of Deputy Coordinator of the National Malaria Control Centre (NMCC). I anticipate unique challenges, strengthened partnerships, and continued progress
in helping Zambian citizens protect themselves from this altogether preventable disease. Zambia and its RBM partners are preventing death and
illness, stabilizing families, and strengthening communities. Partner commitment to realizing these goals was demonstrated in last February’s
successful malaria control annual action planning process.
The 2007 planning process involved an uncommon degree of partner participation and commitment
over a period of several weeks of meetings. Technical working groups reviewed 2006 progress, strategized to overcome potential barriers in 2007, and
clarified and coordinated activities to ensure meeting the goals set out in Zambia’s 2006-2011 National Malaria Strategic Plan.
These efforts culminated with the unveiling of the 2007 Action
Plan for Scale-up of Malaria Control and its ratification by country leadership from the World Bank, UNICEF, USAID, and WHO AFRO.
Priority issues this year include increasing ITN usage rates (the 2006 malaria indicator
survey revealed that only half of ITN owners use their nets), conducting ITN retreatment campaigns, and increasing prompt and effective management of
malaria infection. The inspired commitment and collective vision of our RBM partnership are providing the foundation upon which we continue to strive,
with rolled up sleeves, for a malaria-free Zambia. |
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MACEPA in Zambia: Country Director’s
perspectives
Dr. Abdi
Mohamed |
I continue to be struck by the unique nature of the malaria control partnership that is fueling
progress in Zambia. Early this year, the country achieved its 2007 goal of providing ITNs to public health antenatal clinics in all nine Zambian
provinces, a feat never before accomplished in the country. This means that any pregnant woman in Zambia seeking antenatal care will receive an ITN
for herself and any children under age five in her family.
This milestone could not have been reached without intensive planning, negotiation, and
motivation on behalf of Society for Family Health and the NMCC, the partners
centrally involved in helping to reduce malaria rates among pregnant women. The two groups coordinated closely with MACEPA to ensure that the last
200,000 nets were distributed efficiently.
A simple event recently made it very clear to me the power of what is happening in
Zambia. I visited the Chongwe District Health Centre to meet with Dr. Charles Msisika, the District Health Manager, to discuss recent net
distribution efforts in the area. We happened to pass by the laboratory where malaria test results were being processed and the technician opened his
ledger to show only a handful of positive malaria test results during this transmission season. He then showed the pages from this time last year, in
which the vast majority of tests were positive. To be sure, this is not a scientific study, but I view it as a breathtaking snapshot of progress in
Zambia. |
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Vistas: harmonizing malaria control
Dr. Awa Marie
Coll-Seck, Executive Director, Roll Back Malaria Partnership |
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Today donors, governments, and the private-sector are providing unprecedented levels of
support for malaria control and prevention. Recent commitment from the U.S. government to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) is the largest ever pledged. The US President’s Malaria Initiative, the World Bank Booster Program and other RBM Partners are all contributing tremendous resources, in an
increasingly coordinated manner, to support national programs.
The challenge now lies in harmonizing partners at all levels to maximize impact. The RBM
Partnership has formed the Harmonization Working Group, which is
charged with helping align efforts in support of rapid scale-up of malaria control by mobilizing resources, eliminating bottlenecks, and cultivating
a commitment to working from the three ones – one national plan, one monitoring and evaluation system, and one coordinating
mechanism. At the top of the working group’s agenda for 2007 is leadership of a coordinated effort to help national programs develop strong
proposals for the seventh round of GFATM funding – in a way that supports partner alignment and successful national planning. MACEPA is a key
partner in this global effort to ensure that countries leverage today’s opportunities into lasting, effective programs.
Harmonization requires leadership, trust, communication, good judgment, evidence-based
decision making, and for some, a degree of risk. Nevertheless, a huge number of partners are taking up the challenge of harmonization at the global,
regional, and national levels, seizing the moment of unique opportunity to make the money work and roll back malaria.
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Strengthening net
distribution systems: the difference a year makes |
Steps 1 - 4: 2006 net distribution process.
Step 5: streamlined, direct-to-district 2007
process. |
In late 2005, 526,500 ITNs provided by MACEPA to the NMCC were shipped to Lusaka for
distribution in Zambia’s Western and North Western Provinces – rural, poorly accessible areas with high malaria prevalence rates. One
year later, 200,000 additional ITNs were delivered from port directly to districts in the Lusaka and Copperbelt Provinces. Two months elapsed between
arrival of the first shipment of ITNs in country and their availability in districts. The second shipment was available in districts within one week.
Direct delivery to districts in the second year, spearheaded by MACEPA, streamlined the
process while strengthening district-level capacity for managing future shipments. Decentralized mass distribution of ITNs offered economies of
scale, realized with meticulous planning, data tracking tools, and remarkable commitment and resourcefulness at the district level. This process has
become a model for other large-scale net consignments. In fact, for its 2007 ITN delivery plans, the World Bank estimates the new approach will save
$250,000 for every 300,000 nets distributed. The approach saves money and time so that nets efficiently make it to the children, women, and
families that need them most. |
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MACEPA Lusaka
Postal Net Box 370
P/Bag E 10, Lusaka, Zambia
macepa@path.org |
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