| Project Detail |
Project overview
Malaria Consortium, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef),
is supporting the Ministry of Health to implement a UK aid-funded project that
aims to improve access to and uptake of high-quality malaria prevention and control
services in 26 districts in mid-northern Uganda.1
The Strengthening Uganda’s Response to Malaria (SURMa) project will build
community-level capacity to diagnose and treat malaria and, in line with Uganda’s
Mass Action Against Malaria strategy, will take the fight against malaria to the
household level, highlighting the roles individuals can play in preventing transmission.
To promote ownership and ensure sustainability, project activities will be delivered
by the respective districts, with Malaria Consortium providing technical support and
supervising village health teams (VHTs) and community health extension workers
(CHEWs)
Objectives
The project aims to:
• increase the proportion of women and children protected
against and treated for malaria and other common illnesses
in 26 high-burden districts
• strengthen health systems at the district level, promoting
greater sustainability of malaria and other reproductive,
maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health
interventions
• improve malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea prevention,
as well as diagnostic and treatment practices by VHTs and
CHEWs
• improve malaria prevention, diagnosis, treatment,
monitoring and reporting practices at health facilities
• improve awareness of effective malaria prevention and careseeking practices at the household level
• strengthen the National Malaria Control Program’s capacity
to support the implementation of the Uganda Malaria
Reduction Strategic Plan
• strengthen malaria surveillance systems and improve the
quality, use and sustainability of mobile tracking within the
broader electronic Health Management Information System.
Activities
The SURMa project will:
• re-introduce and institutionalise integrated community
case management (iCCM) activities in all districts in Acholi
subregion and six districts in Lango subregion, using existing
VHT structures
• establish iCCM in four new districts in Lango subregion
to increase access to essential malaria, pneumonia and
dirrahoea services for children under five
• strengthen malaria prevention among vulnerable groups by
increasing uptake of intermittent preventive treatment in
pregnancy, and improving access to and use of long lasting
insecticidal nets
• deliver social and behaviour change communication
interventions to encourage the population to take
appropriate malaria prevention and management measures
• ensure communication and coordination among partners in
order to leverage respective strengths, coordinate activities,
support the development of policies and standardised
guidelines to guarantee timely and improved service
delivery, and strengthen sub-national capacity to deliver
effective malaria control measures
• conduct data quality assessment and validation exercises,
and support the flow of community data to the District
Health Information System 2
• periodically carry out epidemiological and entomological
surveillance and monitor drug and insecticide resistance
to guide future strategies for malaria control and case
management
• train health workers in epidemic preparedness and response |
