Description
Malaria Consortium is one of the world's leading non-profit organisations dedicated to the comprehensive control of malaria and other communicable diseases in Africa and Southeast Asia. Malaria Consortium works with communities, government and non-government agencies, academic institutions, and local and international organisations, to ensure good evidence supports delivery of effective services, providing technical support for monitoring and evaluation of programmes and activities for evidence-based decision-making and strategic planning. The organisation works to improve not only the health of the individual, but also the capacity of national health systems, which helps relieve poverty and support improved economic prosperity.
Country and Project Background:
Malaria remains a major contributor to the public health and economic burden in Cambodia, with a reported incidence in the public sector of 4.32 per 1,000 populations in 2011. Eighty percent of the population lives in areas without malaria transmission, but around 20% (approximately 2.89 million people) either live permanently in the forested endemic areas or are “forest dependent” for additional income. Both malaria morbidity and mortality rates have declined over the last decade due to an increased government commitment together with substantial additional financial and technical support from the international community.
The National Centre for Parasitology, Entomology, and Malaria, formally referred to as the National Malaria Centre (CNM), sits within the MOH of the Royal Government of Cambodia. The leadership of the malaria control activities within Cambodia rests at the central level; however, with the decentralization of the MOH, Provincial Health Department and Operational District malaria supervisors are involved with planning and implementing activities. Participation of community networks (Village Malaria Workers, Village Health Volunteers, and local authorities) helps improve the availability and accessibility of malaria services, including early diagnosis and treatment, LLIN distribution, and malaria health education.
Since 2004, Village Malaria Workers (VMWs) funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have also been collecting individual case data in paper form and sending it to the national programme who aggregated the data manually by district for donor reporting. The scale up and expansion of village malaria worker (VMWs)/community health worker (CHWs) networks it’s believed to have contributed to the reduction of malaria morbidity and mortality in many Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS) countries in recent decades. As the malaria burden is seemingly reduced in many of the GMS countries, the future role of community workers is called into question.
In the context of fewer febrile cases that are malaria position the role and VMWs and CHWs is being re-evaluated. CNM and the Ministry of Health have already piloted an extended-VMW scheme that teaches these health workers about diagnosis of other diseases. Maintaining motivation of health staff and community workers will be critical as the malaria burden decreases and countries move towards elimination. There is a need to look at other sustainable incentivisation schemes that keep VMWs motivated and engaged.
The aim of this consultancy is to conduct a desk review of different methods of incentivizing VMWs/ CHWs used throughout Asia, key informant interviews to further inform these findings and to then make recommendations of which models could be trialed in Cambodia. Key to the recommendations will be the question of what can be sustainable in the medium and longer term.
POSITION: Consultant
LOCATION: Phnom Penh and Pailin
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Consultant
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