Gender and Malaria in Kenya

Gender is a cross-cutting issue that can inform decision making and best practices in all health areas. HIV care and treatment, for example, has benefitted from increased attention to gender inequities over the past decade.

Although transmission of malaria is not comparable to HIV, commonalities such as access to health care and power in decision making are also affected by gender norms and roles. Learning from what we know regarding how gender impacts other disease interventions can and should assist in strategy and planning for effective malaria prevention and response. The Kenya Ministry of Health’s Malaria Control Unit (MCU) recognized the need to incorporate gender into malaria programming and requested technical assistance to ensure that human rights and gender are fully reflected in the upcoming National Malaria Strategy and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Plan.

Gender M&E provides evidence to examine gender differences in who is getting malaria, who is accessing treatment when and where, and what differences exist in malaria prevention and awareness.This gender and malaria review focuses on the monitoring and evaluation aspects of various documents, strategic plans, and current practices in the path toward a malaria-free Kenya. It was completed by a MEASURE Evaluation Gender Specialist through a combination of remote record review, in-country stakeholder meetings, and document reviews.

Source: Kenya Ministry of Health

Date of Publication: June 26, 2019