“I used to stay up all night chasing away mosquitoes,” says Geneviève Ndagijimana, a 34-year-old mother from Burundi. “But it seemed like whatever I did, my children and I would get sick.”
Geneviève and her husband live in the suburbs of Bujumbura with their four children and two nephews. As far back as they can remember, they’ve lived in fear of getting malaria. They’ve lost many family members to the disease. “For many years, I suffered from countless cases of malaria, and I lost two children and my brother to the illness. That was a horrible period in my life.”
When she was pregnant with her fifth child, Geneviève was sure she would lose that baby, too. So, she went to a nearby health center to see if they could help.
PSI shapes mixed market systems, shifts policy and funding and strengthens global capacity to make it easier for people affected by malaria around the world to seek and receive quality malaria prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services. Working alongside in-country network members and our donors, PSI supports national malaria control and elimination programs (NMPs) across 27 countries.
Here are some milestones we've achieved in the fight against malaria:
41 countries
427 million
insecticide-treated nets since 1997, about 20% of the global insecticide-treated nets distributed to date
126 million years
of healthy life
14 million
courses of seasonal malaria chemoprevention
179 million
pre-packaged malaria treatments
80 million
malaria rapid diagnostic tests since 2003
We support national governments to implement the most efficient vector control strategy for their population to reach universal preventative coverage against malaria. We primarily support vector control activities related to increasing efficient coverage and proper use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). We use data and research to routinely analyze and improve our delivery of ITN interventions, with a particular focus on harnessing technology to inform channel innovation of ITN and novel vector control tools.
We work to ensure high-risk and hard-to-reach populations have access to diagnostic and treatment services. We support the training of providers to establish and follow clinical procedures to properly identify and address malaria cases. We ensure providers are equipped with the proper tools and medicines to effectively manage and treat malaria, with an increased focus on elevating integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) and private sector opportunities to strengthen malaria care.
We work to develop effective surveillance tools to capture malaria information in a timely, complete manner in readily accessible tracking systems that are developed with user-centered design. We ensure these tools are available to public and private sector decision makers to target preventative and management approaches across the malaria transmission spectrum.
Pushing the envelope to unlock the potential of proven key drug-based prevention approaches.
We target two of the most vulnerable populations—pregnant women and children under 5—using seasonal malaria chemoprevention for children and intermittent preventative treatment for pregnant women.
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Program Expenses
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“That’s where I met Thérèse Kaburungu, the health clinic manager,” says Geneviève. “She gave me a mosquito net and told me to take it home and use it. The PSI staff who had given the nets to the health center said that they were offered by USAID for women just like me.”
That net changed their lives.
“For the first time in years, I slept through the night,” says Geneviève. “When my children and I woke up, none of us had any bites. And since we started using the mosquito net, we have been healthy.”
Geneviève wants other mothers in her community to use a net, too. “Now, I always encourage people to use their nets because mosquitoes have no mercy; they kill,” she says. “I have lost family, and I have suffered a lot. But now, my family and I are sleeping safe and sound, and I want others to sleep safely, too.”
Using our unique experience in insecticide-treated net (ITN) distribution (continuous and mass) and market facilitation, we continue to support NMPs to scale-up existing and new approaches to achieving and sustaining equitable access to appropriate vector control tools. We aim to expand access and use of next generation vector control tools through digital tool development to support selection, targeting and deployment of tested and novel vector control interventions.
Under the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative-funded VectorLink project, led by Abt Associates, PSI provides global technical leadership to the project’s ITN portfolio across 15 countries in Africa. We lead the implementation of supply chain mechanisms for ITNs and supporting data for ITN decision-making, particularly to emphasize continuous distribution channels to achieve universal net coverage. We also lead the development of social and behavior change communication for vector control, including making sure nets are used correctly, across all our vector control interventions and we implement durability monitoring studies to analyze the average lifespan of an ITN for a given geographic area.
We use consumer insights to promote treatment-seeking behavior and to increase access to affordable malaria case management wherever informed consumers choose to seek care. To achieve this, we support health systems to provide high-quality malaria service delivery through diverse channels – community, public and private sector. We pilot, scale and promote channel-appropriate digital engagement to expand and refine quality training, supervision and mentorship to health care providers. Through strategic partnerships at the global and national level, we also work to elevate private sector opportunities for engagement and stewardship of malaria care.
Malaria disproportionately affects the rural poor who are often geographically disadvantaged to access quality healthcare, or any form of care at all. Across the public and private sectors and at the facility and community level, PSI supports quality malaria diagnosis and treatment through in-person and virtual pre-service and in-service training and supportive supervision in approximately 20 countries. Most notably, PSI leads the PMI Impact Malaria project, PMI’s five-year global flagship malaria service delivery mechanism. PMI Impact Malaria works to achieve universal diagnostic testing coverage and rapid treatment to ensure efficient case management. Globally, PSI supports implementation of integrated community case management in six countries.
PSI shapes malaria surveillance systems to reflect different stages along the malaria control-to-elimination spectrum to ensure the right data are available for the right person, at the right time, to execute the right response. We work with ministries of health to strengthen their use of surveillance platforms to capture high-quality malaria data and to expand collection, analysis and use of those data to inform an appropriate response. Leveraging learnings from the private sector, we support the use and configuration of user-friendly surveillance tools for health care providers of all cadres. In doing so, we strive to extend the coverage of surveillance in high burden or remote areas and support integration of data from those sources to enhance malaria surveillance systems.
With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, PMI, Global Fund, and DFAT, PSI leads efforts to scale-up malaria surveillance activities in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS) and translate lessons learned from the GMS to higher burden countries and sub-national areas in Africa.
In Cambodia, with funding from the Global Fund, PSI is implementing the 1-3-7 approach to elimination ensuring reporting of malaria cases within one day after diagnosis, case investigation within three days, and focus investigation and response within seven days.
The PSI-led Greater Mekong Surveillance Elimination of Malaria through Surveillance (GEMS) project supported diverse private sector outlets to provide quality case management and timely case reporting into national health management information systems to accelerate malaria elimination in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam. The transition from the GEMS project to GEMS+ highlights PSI’s commitment to sustainability, in which the primary outcome of the GEMS+ project is to transition oversight of private sector networks to national malaria programs (NMPs).
To continue evolving as malaria transmission changes globally, we are expanding our ability to provide preventative malaria treatments. We support efforts to scale access to intermittent preventative treatment in pregnant women (IPTp) and to introduce or expand access to seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) to children under 5 in the Sahel sub-region. In areas with moderate to high malaria transmission and where sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine (SP) is effective, we are introducing and generating evidence to expand IPT of malaria in infants (IPTi).
PSI is launching a catalytic Unitaid grant to implement, evaluate, and scale proof-of-concept models of SP-IPTi+, an innovative modification to WHO-recommended SP-IPTi, in four countries. SP-IPTi+ will expand access to chemoprevention to children under the age of two years in countries with high malaria transmission and moderate to high resistance to SP.
The project is being co-designed with malaria and child health stakeholders in each focus country, and PSI will collaborate with Malaria Medicines Venture (MMV) to bring to market a dispersible pediatric SP formulation appropriate for SP-IPTi+ during the life of project.
Click below to download our latest white paper and dive into key learnings and recommendations from the Greater Mekong Subregion Elimination of Malaria through Surveillance (GEMS+) project.
With overarching commitments to flexibility in our work, and greater wellbeing for our employees, we want to ensure PSI is positioned for success with a global and holistic view of talent. Under our new “work from (almost) anywhere,” or “WFAA” philosophy, we are making the necessary investments to be an employer of record in more than half of U.S. states, and consider the U.S. as one single labor market for salary purposes. Globally, we recognize the need to compete for talent everywhere; we maintain a talent center in Nairobi and a mini-hub in Abidjan. PSI also already works with our Dutch-based European partner, PSI Europe, and we’re creating a virtual talent center in the UK.
PSI is firmly committed to the meaningful engagement of young people in our work. As signatories of the Global Consensus Statement on Meaningful Adolescent & Youth Engagement, PSI affirms that young people have a fundamental right to actively and meaningfully engage in all matters that affect their lives. PSI’s commitments aim to serve and partner with diverse young people from 10-24 years, and we have prioritized ethics and integrity in our approach. Read more about our commitments to the three core principles of respect, justice and Do No Harm in the Commitment to Ethics in Youth-Powered Design. And read more about how we are bringing our words to action in our ICPD+25 commitment, Elevating Youth Voices, Building Youth Skills for Health Design.
PSI works to ensure that its operations and supply chains are free from slavery and human trafficking. Read more about this commitment in our policy statement, endorsed by the PSI Board of Directors.
Since 2017, PSI has been a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, a commitment to align strategies and operations with universal principles of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. Read about PSI’s commitment to the UN Global Compact here.
The health of PSI’s consumers is inextricably linked to the health of our planet. That’s why we’ve joined the Climate Accountability in Development as part of our commitment to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. Read about our commitment to environmental sustainability.
PSI does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, genetic information, disability, protected veteran status or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state or local law. Read our full affirmative action and equal employment opportunity policy here.
PSI is committed to establishing and maintaining a work environment that fosters harmonious, productive working relationships and encourages mutual respect among team members. Read our policy against discrimination and harassment here.
PSI is committed to serving all health consumers with respect, and strives for the highest standards of ethical behavior. PSI is dedicated to complying with the letter and spirit of all laws, regulations and contractual obligations to which it is subject, and to ensuring that all funds with which it is entrusted are used to achieve maximum impact on its programs. PSI provides exceptionally strong financial, operational and program management systems to ensure rigorous internal controls are in place to prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse and ensure compliance with the highest standards. Essential to this commitment is protecting the safety and well-being of our program consumers, including the most vulnerable, such as women and children. PSI maintains zero tolerance for child abuse, sexual abuse, or exploitative acts or threats by our employees, consultants, volunteers or anyone associated with the delivery of our programs and services, and takes seriously all complaints of misconduct brought to our attention.
PSI affirms its commitment to diversity and believes that when people feel respected and included they can be more honest, collaborative and successful. We believe that everyone deserves respect and equal treatment regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, cultural background or religious beliefs. Read our commitment to diversity and inclusion here. Plus, we’ve signed the CREED Pledge for Racial and Ethnic Equity. Learn more.
PSI affirms gender equality is a universal human right and the achievement of it is essential to PSI’s mission. Read about our commitment to gender equality here.
From ministries of health to regulatory bodies and purchasers, we partner with private and public sector players to provide seamless health services to consumers – no matter their entry point to care.
Across 40+ countries, we scale digital solutions that make it easier for people to take ownership of their own health, and health systems to use resources efficiently and increase health impact.
We support health systems in shaping the policy and regulatory environment for self-care interventions and ensuring self-care is included as an essential part of healthcare services.
