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World Malaria Day 2022
Every April 25th, we celebrate World Malaria Day to look back on the impressive progress we have made in fighting this ancient disease. Malaria cases in Asia Pacific have declined by 50% in just the past ten years. Still, we recognize the billions of people globally who are still at risk. As we approach the last mile of malaria elimination in Asia Pacific, we are increasingly aware that innovating inclusive approaches for hard-to-reach people and communities is needed.
Genderis one consideration necessary to discover new innovations and to reach targetpopulations. The cultural, social, and physiological differences betweengenders are important in designing inclusive and tailored approaches tospecific groups. In many rural areas Asia Pacific, men generally face higherexposure to malaria due to migrant work in forests and fields wheremalaria-carrying mosquitos can be found. But there are risks for women too withoutdoor work and activities such as cooking, collecting water and fuel. In addition,women who contract malaria may face higher risks from the disease due tobarriers in accessing treatment or reduced immunity while pregnant.Understanding differences in gender-based risks is critical to effectiveprogramming that ensures equity and that no one is left behind.
Broad-strokepolicies are less effective in finishing the last mile. A new paper publishedby The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific titled, “Buildinga gender responsive framework for malaria elimination in Asia-Pacific” furthershows how applying a gender lens can improve outcomes. The paper specificallylists three actions to apply a gender framework to strengthen impact:
- Collect and publish sex and age disaggregated data to design more inclusive malaria programmes and policies
- Bridge different health programs using interdisciplinary approaches
- Strengthen gender diversity and representation in leadership and decision-making roles
Asstressed in the paper, we must better understand at-risk people in our malariaelimination efforts. Asia Pacific mustadopt gender frameworks in its malaria elimination strategies to buildinclusivity, tailor solutions to the most at-risk, improve health servicedelivery, and also progress towards meeting SGD 5 on gender equality.
ThisWorld Malaria Day let’s focus on gender within malaria programming to addresspotential biases and provide equitable healthcare access to all.
Building a gender responsive framework for malaria elimination in Asia-Pacific
Read the paper
This paper was created in partnership with experts from the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA), Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, National University of Singapore and Tokyo University, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative.
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