Soul Beat Malaria Extra - Issue #9

This issue of the Soul Beat Malaria Extra shares with you a variety of recent malaria news, resources, initiatives, research reports, and training resources to help support malaria and communication initiatives in Africa

In this Issue:

C-Change/FHI 360 led the meeting of the Five Year Global Strategic Framework for Malaria held May 2-4, 2012 in Accra, Ghana. Thirty participants came from five countries (Ghana, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Tanzania, and Zambia) and 13 partner organizations including FHI360, JHU/CCP, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Roll Back Malaria, Malaria No More, Ghana Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), USAID/Ghana, Population Services International (PSI), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and Kenya Red Cross.
Participants adopted the strategic framework, which describes complementary processes for mobilizing financial, social, and political resources to position communication as a core part of malaria control, particularly at the country level. The framework calls for partners to advocate for programmes that: position communication as a critical component; ensure that communication strategies are evidence-based, context-specific, and results-driven; further capacity building in communication from global to local levels; and invest adequate resources to communication at the country level.
Participants also established a Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Communication Working Group to support ongoing discussions. The final strategic framework document is forthcoming this month.

Click here for more information on the RBM website and here for more information on the C-Change website.

In their effort to achieve universal coverage with long-lasting insecticide-treated nets across Senegal, the NetWorks malaria prevention project teamed up with religious leaders and local women’s groups to share malaria prevention messages with a group which had never been the focus of malaria prevention campaigns before – the tallibes, or Koranic students. Ranging in age from five to 18 years, the tallibes study and frequently live in daaras (Koranic schools), far from their families and, often, under poor conditions. As discussed in this article, the overcrowded and poor living conditions provided some unique challenges for the campaign. Click here for the full article.

This brief provides ministries of health, donors, and malaria and reproductive health implementing partners with a synthesis of lessons learned in malaria in pregnancy (MIP) programming in three relatively high-performing countries - Malawi, Senegal, and Zambia - highlighting best practices and successful strategies that can be applied to other malaria-endemic countries throughout Africa. It highlights the importance of community involvement, the role of community health workers in educating the community, and the importance of adequate in-service training and mentorship. Click here to access this report.

Published by the Malaria Journal, this article shares findings of a study to determine factors influencing the use of LLINs in three rural communities of Côte d'Ivoire, two of which benefited from recent interventions. According to the article, the study not only confirmed that education and socioeconomic position play important roles in the prevention and control of malaria and promotion of health in general, but pointed to the basic essential knowledge and the key behavioural elements that should guide education and learning processes among the economically poorer segments of the population. Click here to access this report.

This 2-page brief, published by Roll Back Malaria, shares the experience and lessons learned in Kenya from the country’s strategy of continuous LLIN distribution to prevent malaria. According to the brief, continuous distribution systems are a crucial complement to free distribution campaigns, maintaining the coverage that campaigns build. At the core of success of the distribution systems, led by Kenya’s Division of Malaria Control (DoMC), is that all donors and partners support the principal of one strategy, one co-ordinating body, and one monitoring and evaluation plan. The brief also credits a strong communication programme with mobilising community support for the system. Click here to access this report.

Share your knowledge
Do you have programme descriptions, strategic planning documents, project evaluations, training manuals or resources, and trainings and events you think are useful to others working on SBCC and Malaria? If you do please go to the knowledge sharing area of Soul Beat Africa's Malaria Network where, once you've registered, you can upload the resources you want to share. Or you can send your information to soulbeat@comminit.com

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This publication is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of Agreement No. GPO-A-00-07-00004-00. The contents are the responsibility of The Communication Initiative and the C-Change project, managed by FHI360, and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.