Kenya and Uganda agree to set up a cross-border malaria control initiative
Between 2-4 April, a hundred participants joined a meeting organised by the East African Community in Busia, Kenya, to discuss malaria elimination in the Uganda-Kenya border regions. The event’s agenda included the sharing of the latest data, such as vector surveillance data and cross-border movement patterns, identification of current challenges, and strategic planning. As a result, the Kenya-Uganda cross-border malaria elimination initiative (KUCMEI) was established, and participants committed to joint future research into drug-resistant malaria.
Participants of the meeting held in Busia, April 2025.
Growth in drug-resistant malaria
The border areas between Kenya and Uganda bear a high malaria burden, as well as worrying high levels of artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) reduced efficacy, making disease management increasingly difficult. This situation requires a quick and tailor-made response that doesn’t ignore the distinct needs of a cross-border region.
So far, information sharing and joint action between the countries have not always been as fast as the situation demands. There was a need for easily accessible digital platforms containing up-to-date information as well as region-specific initiatives that would help bring stakeholders together in forming action plans. The Busia meeting helped participants discuss solutions to all these issues.
Digital resources and antimalarial resistance data
In the last year, MARC SE-Africa created several new resources – including MARC SE-Africa’s Malaria resistance profiles for South-East African countries and the Antimalarial dashboard – which are now helping to inform all relevant stakeholders in South-East African countries of the current state of antimalarial drug resistance.
An image taken from the MARC SE-Africa antimalarial dashboard, showing results of therapeutic efficacy surveys (TES) below 90%, indicating lower efficacy of the artemisinin derivatives and/or the partner drugs of the ACTs in the Busia region on the Uganda-Kenya border.
At the meeting, MARC SE-Africa representatives Stephen Tukwasibwe and Michael Katende provided updates on regional efforts to mitigate antimalarial drug resistance in East Africa and the findings on drug-resistant malaria surveillance in refugee populations in cross-border areas.
Stephen Tukwasibwe from IDRC, MARC SE-Africa partner, at the cross-border event.
Solidifying cross-border cooperation
During the meeting, national malaria programmes’ representatives, heads of the Karamoja-Turkana and Busia-Busia border regions and other partners reviewed the draft concept note for cross-border collaboration on malaria response at the Karamoja-Turkana and Busia-Busia border areas. They agreed to solidify their cooperation in the form of a new initiative – the Kenya-Uganda cross-border malaria elimination initiative (KUCMEI) – to eliminate malaria along the Kenya-Uganda border by 2030.
Next steps
The initiative aims to collect more data and create a plan to tackle antimalarial resistance in the region. With that goal in mind, they agreed to conduct a joint pilot study to document the impact of seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) on children between 59 months and 14 years, in collaboration with Malaria Consortium and national malaria programmes.
