Zimbabwe National Malaria Communication Strategy

Zimbabwe’s Malaria Communication Strategy (MCS) has been developed to support the National Malaria Strategic Plan (NMSP), which in turn serves to accomplish goals of the National Health Strategy for the same period, 2016-2020. A participatory consultative process was conducted to review a wide range of documents including the 2016 Malaria Indicator Survey (MIS), Malaria Programme Review (MPR), Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), Tracking Results Continuously (TRaC) Survey, previous qualitative and quantitative surveys and programme reports to review past and current social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) progress in malaria.

Several key findings include high rates of indoor residual spraying (IRS) acceptance and an increasing rate of care seeking behavior for fever. Findings also include low uptake and utilization of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs), low malaria risk perception, low prompt care seeking among caregivers of children under five, and low uptake of intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant women (intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy – IPTp). Changes in malaria epidemiology necessitated re-stratifying the country into five distinct transmission zones which are: free/ sporadic; low and short seasonal; moderate and seasonal; high and seasonal; and high and perennial. Participants present for this consultation recognized the need to tailor different SBCC approaches for these transmission zones. This MCS describes changes in communication objectives between control areas (high and moderate transmission) and pre-elimination areas (low and unstable transmission).

Source: Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: March 25, 2019