Page 30 - BOPHELO - Life - 2026

Strengthening Cross-

Border Efforts to

Reduce Malaria

Malaria continues to affect the youngest and most 2030. Progress is challenged by insecticide and drug
vulnerable communities in Africa. Transmission is resistance, climate change, vector adaptation, and
movement across borders, particularly from high-burden
shaped by environmental, social, and regional
provinces in southern Mozambique.
factors, making it difficult to address with a single
approach. Eliminating malaria requires strategies
that are evidence-based, locally informed, and Regional Collaboration and Evidence
coordinated across borders.
Effective malaria control relies on regional partnerships.
South Africa is committed to malaria elimination following The Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative (LSDI),
agreements made by the African Union, the World launched in 1999, brought South Africa, Mozambique, and
Health Assembly, and the Southern African Development Eswatini together to coordinate interventions. Through
Community (SADC). National efforts began in 2012, with combined vector control, the use of effective insecticides,
the first elimination target set for 2018 and revised for and introducing combination therapy, malaria prevalence

28 THE SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL