Delivering innovations to end malaria

How science, technology and partnerships help frontline workers

April 24, 2026

Two people in vibrant African print outdoors; a woman with a pink headwrap holds hands with a child — Digital tools and medical innovations can improve malaria prevention, testing and treatment, especially among young children, who are more vulnerable.

Photo: UNDP Guinea-Bissau/Gregório Cunha

“The mosquito nets are a lifeline,” said Diogène Ntirampeba, a father of six children in Mwakiro, northeastern Burundi.

Diogène knows the protective value of the insecticide-treated net hanging above his bed. He and his daughter recently had malaria, a potentially fatal disease spread by mosquitoes that typically bite overnight.

Malaria especially harms young children, who have limited immunity to severe infection. In 2024, children under five years comprised three-quarters of the world's malaria deaths. Countries recorded 282 million cases—nine million more than the previous year, with four million in Burundi alone. Across Africa, the most-affected region, reductions in cases and deaths have stalled.

Man holding child by a stone wall; people walk inside a large white tent. — Diogène Ntirampeba, left, and his two-year-old daughter were among millions in Burundi who received mosquito nets to prevent malaria, which claimed over 610,000 lives worldwide in 2024.

Photo: UNDP Burundi

National governments, working together with UNDP, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and other partners, are strengthening health systems to accelerate malaria elimination.

Frontline workers, equipped with new tools and medical innovations, are improving efforts to treat malaria and stop transmission. Digital data systems, next-generation mosquito nets, preventive medicines and smart technologies—all enable workers to promote health more effectively and equitably.

Together, these efforts enable millions to live healthier and more productive lives.

Photograph shows volunteers in white shirts assisting a patient on a bed in a shelter clinic. — Claudine Nkebukive, right, managed mosquito net distributions using a new digital platform that provided real time updates on deliveries.

Photo: UNDP Burundi

“Digitalization is revolutionizing field monitoring. Everything is visible in real time,” said Claudine Nkebukive, who supervised mosquito net distributions in Muyinga, northern Burundi.

In 2025, frontline workers like Claudine and the Burundi Ministry of Public Health delivered 7.9 million mosquito nets to protect 13.6 million people.

The ministry and partners provided nets with two active ingredients to tackle growing resistance to insecticides. For the first time, the distribution employed Tsinda Malariya (Defeat Malaria), an interoperable digital platform that tracks nets to their destination.

The system replaced paper-based processes, which were cumbersome and prone to data errors, to improve accuracy, transparency and efficiency. It also generated real-time data that can inform broader public services and planning.

Collage: healthcare instructor with students in a classroom; hands using smartphones. — Thousands of community workers were trained to digitally register 2.8 million households across the country and provide them with mosquito nets.

Photo: UNDP Burundi

With digital tablets and training, 6,000 workers registered 2.8 million households eligible for bed nets in just nine days. At community distribution points, they matched households with deliveries, ensuring nets reached vulnerable people, including refugees and expectant mothers. Daily data reporting enabled remote monitoring and adaptive management by health authorities, strengthening accountability and operational performance.

The distribution complemented previous efforts to protect people with indoor residual spraying and new malaria vaccines, which have helped reduce cases and deaths since 2021. Interoperable technology also supports integrated data systems, enabling ministries to strengthen evidence-based decision-making.

Group of students outside, some in white shirts with lanyards, gathered around a phone. — Using an interoperable digital platform enables population data to be shared with Burundi’s Ministry of Public Health to facilitate future planning and decision-making.

Photo: UNDP Burundi

“Digitalization is revolutionizing field monitoring. Everything is visible in real time”

—Claudine Nkebukive

For Diogène and his family, the bed nets were also a social safety net.

“Every time someone falls ill, I sink deeper into poverty because I spend more resources on healthcare. The net distribution protects us,” he said.

People gather outdoors around a large translucent sheet draped over a frame near a tan canopy on a red track. — Mosquito nets not only prevent malaria but also help protect families from financial hardship, such as lost income from illness.

Photo: UNDP Burundi

Behind every frontline worker are vast logistical operations and infrastructure.

In Guinea-Bissau, UNDP and the Central Procurement Agency for Essential Medicines (CECOME) upgraded a state-of-the-art medical warehouse in 2024. Equipped with solar power, automated inventory management and smart environmental sensors, the facility protects medicines and vaccines from the country’s tropical climate.

Split view: left neighborhood with solar roof panels; right warehouse aisle with orange racks and a worker. — The central medical warehouse in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, increases supply chain management capacity for life-saving medicines using solar energy and smart technology.

Photos: UNDP Guinea-Bissau/João Azeredo

Like in Burundi, real-time stock monitoring and operational protocols boost supply chain transparency, helping reduce supply shortages and waste.

"The system identifies medicines nearing expiry, supporting a zero-expiry policy," said Joseph Chanda, UNDP’s Warehouse Construction Project Manager at CECOME.

The impact is significant. In 2024, the warehouse supplied eight million medicine tablets for malaria prevention and treatment. Nearly 400,000 rapid tests delivered to public health facilities helped raise testing for people with malaria symptoms to 99 percent, leading to earlier treatment for more than 100,000 people.

Early diagnosis and treatment not only save lives and reduce transmission but also strengthen overall health system performance.

Photograph of a woman in a patterned dress holding a baby, in a sunny village with thatched huts. — Aissatu Baldé holds her son, Amadi Embaló, and gives him medicines to prevent malaria during the rainy season, known as seasonal malaria chemoprevention, in Sane Cuia, Bafatá.

Photo: UNDP Guinea-Bissau/Gregório Cunha

Malaria prevention also increased during the rainy season, when transmission typically rises. In 2025, UNDP and the Ministry of Public Health delivered four monthly rounds of preventive medicines to 104,000 children in Bafatá and Gabú. Community health workers played a critical role, going door to door and strengthening trust between communities and health systems.

“As a mother, malaria is one of my greatest fears,” said Aissatu Baldé while holding Amadi Embaló, her two-month-old son who received preventive medicines in Sane Cuia, a village in Bafatá. “But now I feel more at ease. My son is protected.”

In 2026, digital technology will help 2,400 community health workers manage mass mosquito net distributions—further scaling impact and equitable access to malaria prevention tools.

Outdoor market with people in line; close-up of a hand holding a spoonful of yellow powder. — Each rainy season, UNDP supports community workers who educate schoolchildren and parents about seasonal malaria chemoprevention.

Photos: UNDP Guinea-Bissau/Anesu Freddy (left)
UNDP Guinea-Bissau/Gregório Cunha (right)

Science and technology, combined with country and community leadership, are putting malaria elimination within reach. Since 2000, 2.3 billion cases and 14 million deaths have been averted worldwide, with 47 countries now certified malaria-free.

These gains highlight the importance of sustained investments in frontline workers and operational capacities to ensure healthcare is delivered efficiently. More people, in turn, can get life-saving services, and countries build public health resilience.

Person in striped shirt extends hands toward camera; pink building and trees behind. — Ending malaria in our lifetime is a real possibility. Investing in people’s health, including in digital technologies and with scientific breakthroughs, can deliver health and prosperity for all.

Photo: UNDP Guinea-Bissau/Anesu Freddy

Yet complex challenges—conflict, the climate crisis, growing biological threats and funding disruptions—are altering disease patterns and putting global progress at risk. Achieving a malaria-free future means sustaining investment in innovative tools, programmes and national health systems, while scaling up solutions with local stakeholders, businesses and sectors beyond health.

UNDP and partners will continue working with countries to end malaria globally, and deliver a healthier, more equitable and prosperous future for everyone.