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Project Description

The malaria situation in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) has improved within the past 10 years through the introduction of insecticide-treated nets, promotion of health seeking behavior, and appropriate treatment. However, malaria remains a major threat for the general population due to increasing drug resistance of the parasite, and pockets of high malaria morbidity and mortality continue to exist among ethnic minorities, remote communities, and mobile populations. Information, education and communication (IEC) interventions are generally not geared towards these groups. Access to remote areas in the GMS is difficult, especially during the wet season, and appropriate strategies including IEC are needed to encourage and mobilize communities to take an active role in malaria prevention and control. The Mekong Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Initiative is a regional partnership of some 20 agencies to pool resources in the fight against malaria in the GMS. The RBM goals are to reduce malaria in the GMS by 50% by 2010 relative to 1998, and halt progression of multidrug resistance in the GMS. The RBM initiative targets poor and vulnerable populations living in remote and isolated areas, ethnic minority groups (EMGs), and migrant workers with a high burden of malaria, who are physically, socially and economically isolated and often not covered by national malaria control programs (NMCPs). Within the RBM initiative, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children-s Fund (UNICEF) formulated a joint project to expand services of NMCPs to reach these groups, and requested Asian Development Bank (ADB) to assist with developing effective IEC materials for selective EMGs in the GMS using a participatory approach and regional know-how; and sharing the findings at national and regional levels to boost efforts of NMCPs to control malaria among these groups.

Progress (as of March 2021)

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