Sub-Saharan leaders deliver progress on "High burden to high impact" response

Making HBHI headway

Sub-Saharan African leaders in the highest burden countries are moving quickly to adopt the “High burden to high impact” (HBHI) approach to jumpstart progress against malaria. Actions focus on translating political commitment into tangible actions, better use of strategic information to drive impact, implementation of the best global guidance, policies and strategies as well as improved coordination.

In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni last year launched the Mass Action Against Malaria initiative, which empowers citizens to play their role in preventing malaria and contributing to better quality health services. Mr Museveni has also acknowledged his own responsibility for creating a malaria-free Uganda.

In Niger, Prime Minister Brigi Rafini affirmed his government’s resolve to fight malaria and launched the pan-African campaign “Zero Malaria Starts with Me” in 2018 to enhance multilateral cooperation. The First Lady, Aïssata Issoufou Mahamadou, declared her commitment to mobilize action at the community level. Cameroon, Ghana, Mozambique, Niger and others are also building social and political movements to end malaria.

High-level meetings in 2019 have brought together national, local and traditional leaders, academics and malaria experts in seven countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria and Uganda) to agree on concrete actions in the HBHI response. Similar meetings will be held in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and United Republic of Tanzania over the coming months.

Malaria database development

Countries that have launched the HBHI approach have started developing national malaria database repositories that draw on health systems, routine information, programmatic, survey, research and climate data to help understand the geographic distribution of the disease and the impact of interventions. Strengthening the use of available data for decision making will help identify the best mix of interventions and drives continuous improvement of quality data.

Leaving no one behind

In line with WHO’s push for universal health coverage and primary health care, HBHI will play an important role in ensuring that people who are most in need get access to the right interventions, including insecticide-treated nets and medicines.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria encourages malaria programmes to adopt the HBHI approach when requesting funding and use local data to identify the mix of interventions and optimal means of delivery.

https://reliefweb.int/report/world/high-burden-high-impact-targeted-malaria-response