More than 800,000 cases of malaria occur in Mali each year. Malaria is responsible for 30% of outpatient clinical visits, 30% of hospital deaths, and 17% of childhood deaths. The disease is pervasive all throughout Mali.
The Voices Project team in Mali has teamed up with Groupe Pivot, a well-established national NGO umbrella group. Working at both the national and community levels, the Voices Project is raising awareness of issues such as access to insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), provision of IPT for pregnant women, drug resistance, and pesticides used in indoor residual spraying (IRS). Voices also played a key role in facilitating partner collaboration and coordination throughout the end stages of the planning process by hosting weekly meetings.
In Mali, Voices aims to:
reinforce the political will for the fight against malaria
promote the allocation of resources in a suitable way
solve the bottlenecks related to the access and the use of the commodities (LLINs, ACTs, RDTs) by periodically supervising sites, participating in the CCM meetings, and participating in donor roundtable meetings and strategic planning committee of the NMCP.
Achieve universal coverage by December 2010 with national LLIN distribution campaign
Accomplishments
The team helped to assure the success of the Ministry of Health’s December 07 integrated campaign, which provided measles and polio vaccinations, deworming medication, Vitamin A, and insecticide treated nets to over 2.8 million children and 160,000 women post-partum. Voices trained local journalists, organized a press conference, co-organized an information point for international visitors and a reception for the Ministry of Health, and accompanied visitors and journalists to the field to see the campaign in action. Voices also played a key role in facilitating partner collaboration and coordination throughout the end stages of the planning process by hosting weekly meetings. A post-campaign survey showed 80% of households with children under five now have a long lasting insecticide treated net.
Voices also helped facilitate the five year extension of the taxes and tariffs exoneration for insecticide treated nets and materials, via direct advocacy with USAID, the US Embassy, and the President of Mali.
In October 2007, Voices held an International Advocacy Conference, where southern African NGO network representatives convened in Bamako to discuss regional issues in malaria advocacy. During the Conference the participants met with President Amadou Toumani Toure, and identified three focus areas for advocacy: improved community access to commodities and services; effective collaboration and transparency among partners; increased political will, as evidenced by a commitment to results.
Voices has also been engaged in advocacy campaign targeting decision makers through a series of televised spots, where popular Malian musicians ask national and district leaders to do their best to protect Malians. Specifically, they ask that pregnant women get ITNs and SP for free; that children get nets and new treatment; that nets be distributed according to the policy all over Mali; and that children get treated quickly. After seeing the spots, the Minister of Health called Voices for a meeting to find out more about the project.
Billboards supporting the UAM campaign will be rotated to eighteen different venues, including the
capital city and rural districts in which Voices works. This one states, “2010, the year of victory over malaria
Current activities
A mother and her young child wait to receive treatment at a health clinic in Mali (Credit: Bonnie Gillespie)
Raising profile of NMCP within Ministry of Health: Working with the National Assembly, NMCP and Ministry of Health to move the NMCP from within the National Health Director’s Office to the level of ministry cabinet.
Advocacy for improved access to ACTs: Hosted an Etat Major meeting on ACTs in Mali with donors, implementing agencies, Ministry officials and private sector representatives. ACTs are free for children under 5 and available in health clinics but access is still low due to limited use of community relays/health workers. During the meeting partners made an action plan to address the identified bottlenecks, and engaged the Regional Health Director to assure a good redistribution of drugs.
Increasing district funds allocations for malaria: Eight districts in Mopti, Timbuktu and Kayes regions have been selected for malaria advocacy interventions according to extreme poverty, malaria prevalence and the risk of a malaria epidemic. In these regions local NGOs will advocate with local authorities (mayors, district assemblies) to allocate local resources and priorities to malaria control. The Mayors Alliance (AMM) and several members of the national assembly were trained in malaria advocacy, and will support the advocacy objectives at both the national levels as well as in the three regions.
Engaging the private sector: Members of the private sector have committed to assisting the MOH to get ITNs out to districts that haven’t received their quotas.
Facilitating RBM sub-regional network process: The WARN focal point identified the Voices Regional office as a source of support for the finalization of the group’s workplan in September, and for helping to organize the next meeting for WARN in late January 08 in Bamako.
For the United Against Malaria campaign, activities include:
Increasing use of nets and ACTs by
Creating PSAs, billboards, posters, checkerboards and card games
Linking the United Against Malaria campaign with national football tournaments
Conducting community activities and interpersonal communication with United Against Malaria materials
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More than 800,000 cases of malaria occur in Mali each year. Malaria is responsible for 30% of outpatient clinical visits, 30% of hospital deaths, and 17% of childhood deaths. The disease is pervasive all throughout Mali.
