Cet article d’actualité est disponible uniquement en anglaise.

Youth corps in six countries – the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zambia – are rolling out a new initiative to strengthen gender equality in the fight against malaria while contributing to the promotion of universal health coverage.

Funded by the Gender Equality Fund and supported by the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), the initiative leverages national malaria youth corps as catalysts for change by strengthening their leadership, advocacy, and community engagement capacities. ALMA will provide technical guidance, training on scorecard tools, and mentorship opportunities – enabling the youth to lead community dialogues, identify gender-related health barriers, and advocate for policy and programming changes at both local and national levels.

Advancing gender equality through community engagement

The Gender Equality Fund, established by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, in partnership with GSK and ViiV Healthcare, recognises the critical role of gender equality in ending HIV, TB and malaria. The Gender Equality Fund will help accelerate progress through targeted investments in community engagement, local leadership, and empowerment, especially of women and girls who face the highest vulnerabilities.

We are pleased with this opportunity, where young people, especially young women, will be equipped to lead in accountability and advocacy, and help lay the groundwork for health systems that listen to communities and respond to their needs. It is encouraging to see gender equality positioned as a core part of malaria and NTD elimination efforts, rather than treated as a separate conversation.

Joy Phumaphi, Executive Secretary of ALMA

Through the use of malaria and community scorecards, youth corps will work with local stakeholders to identify gender-related barriers, facilitate inclusive dialogues, and follow up with actionable plans. These efforts will also help bridge the gap between communities and decision-makers, enabling health systems to be more responsive to the needs of women and girls.

Simultaneously, the project is investing in female leadership. Female youth leaders will play a central role in presenting their community perspectives and scorecard findings to ministries of health, parliaments, and End Malaria Councils and Funds, helping to influence policies and resource distribution.

Project builds on youth corps leadership on gender equality

In the lead-up to implementation, the youth corps have already initiated activities aligned with the fund’s objectives. In Uganda, for example, the youth corps are actively using the malaria scorecard to assess gender-related barriers and shape community responses. In Mozambique, Zambia, Eswatini, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, young women are leading local awareness campaigns and facilitating community dialogue sessions, in a bid to ensure malaria prevention messages reach women and adolescent girls more effectively. These early efforts highlight the important role of women leaders within the youth corps in shaping how services are delivered at the community level.

In Uganda, young women in the Malaria Youth Champions are taking on leadership roles especially in coordinating scorecard reviews, leading community dialogues that address the real barriers women and girls face in accessing malaria services. This Gender Equality Fund support enables us to go further in engaging communities to ensure that no one is left behind in the fight against malaria and NTDs.

Namuddu Hilder, Team Co-Lead – Malaria Youth Champions, Uganda

Sub-national areas for implementation are being selected in consultation with ministries of health, based on key criteria such as malaria burden, and current use of scorecard tools.

The project builds on ALMA’s ongoing work with national youth corps, End Malaria Councils and Funds, and scorecard platforms to support malaria elimination and health equity. The overall aim is to improve health service delivery and ensure that malaria and NTD responses are more inclusive and responsive to community needs by strengthening accountability processes and investing in youth leadership, particularly among young girls and women.

As implementation begins, countries will document best practices and share learnings with other youth corps across the continent. These insights will support continued progress in addressing gender-related barriers and contribute to stronger, more equitable health systems.