Overview

Voices for a Malaria-Free Future (Voices) is a pioneering malaria advocacy project operating in Mali, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, the United States, and at the global partnership level. Funded by the Gates Foundation, Voices works to galvanize governments and partner organizations toward effective malaria control efforts and cultivate malaria champions around the world. Malaria endemic country advocacy emphasizes increased political will, improved policies, stronger management and coordination, while harmonizing with global malaria partnership-building and advocacy in the U.S. for increased malaria funding. Voices leads an integrated, international campaign of advocacy activities to incite and complement advances toward malaria eradication.

Accomplishments

• Voices established a new standard of credibility for malaria advocacy. The malaria community has long been dominated by technical experts who did not value “advocacy” as a critical tool for progress. Voices built a strong reputation for basing advocacy strategy on evidence, partnership and collaborative discussion. Malaria advocates are now viewed as valuable, essential partners in the fight against malaria, due largely to the work of Voices.

• Through Voices’ sustained leadership with the NGO Delegation, Executive Committee, and on key Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM) Working Groups, the RBM Partnership and Board have become stronger and more influential over the course of the Voices Project. Important milestones include the creation of two seats for Northern and Southern NGOs, active engagement in the Board by high-level, influential decision makers. In addition, Voices successfully promoted the institutionalization of financial tracking and reporting mechanisms to build accountability and track progress.

• The Voices project team continues active engagement in the RBM, with the Project Director serving as Vice-Chair of the Partnership Board. Voices team members also chair the Malaria Advocacy Working Group (MAWG) and are key members of the Harmonization Working Group, the Alliance for Malaria Prevention, the Monitoring and Evaluation Reference Group and offer ongoing support to the Sub-Regional Networks of RBM in countries across Africa.

• U.S. funding for malaria control more than doubled during the Voices project, while overall global funding increased tremendously as well. Voices activities contributed significantly to this achievement, both by its work in the U.S. and with international partners in the MAWG.
• In Mali, Voices recruited popular Malian musicians as champions in the fight against malaria. These champions spoke out about the need to protect pregnant women and children under five from malaria with the tools available in-country and drew the attention of the Ministry of Health. As a result, LLINs were delivered to health facilities at the beginning of the rainy season and not left in the central warehouses.

• Ghana’s DMATs greatly improved local participation in malaria control issues, bringing together the health sector, local government, public and the private sector to advocate for the release of the 1% district common fund for malaria. The DMATS conducted malaria needs assessments, developed action plans, and applied funds available to educate local chiefs, and Assembly Members as part of their advocacy work. Some districts have demonstrated improved ITN and ACT access and use.