LEARNING COMMUNITY COUNTRIES

Zambia

Zambia, the first country with which MACEPA partnered to implement the scale-up for impact approach, is the founding Learning Community country. Solid leadership from the Zambian government has made
it possible for all of its partners
to contribute to one national
plan and work together to accelerate national progress.

With staff posted in the National Malaria Control Centre, MACEPA has worked with Zambia and its partners since 2005 to strategize and troubleshoot as challenges arise. MACEPA has provided intensive support for processes that have produced consensus national plans, and has supported the government’s use of innovative tools to make those plans a reality, including comprehensive malaria indicator surveys in 2006 and 2008. 

Zambia has become a standard-setter in malaria control and has made remarkable progress toward its goal of reducing malaria incidence by 75 percent by 2011. Over 4 million insecticide-treated nets were distributed in 2006 and 2007. Any pregnant woman seeking prenatal care at a public health center now can obtain preventive medicines as well as long-lasting insecticidal mosquito nets for herself and any children under the age of five years living with her, and more than 60 percent of pregnant women in Zambia now take the minimum recommended two doses of malaria prevention medicine. The 15 districts currently included in the indoor residual spraying program have already met the national goal of 85 percent coverage in targeted areas, and the program is expanding to new districts.

As the founding member, Zambia will house the Learning Community Secretariat and share its tools, methods, and lessons with other countries setting ambitious goals for malaria control scale-up.

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Photo: PATH (Cristina Herdman).