New paper highlights the role of the commercial sector in net coverage

Malaria Consortium is pleased to release a new Learning Paper on developing a long lasting insecticidal net retail (LLIN) market in Nigeria, highlighting how the commercial sector can help to expand the coverage of nets in Nigeria.

The use of LLINs is one of the most effective ways to prevent malaria. In Nigeria, LLINs are provided to children under five and pregnant women through routine distribution at antenatal clinics. Primary school children receive LLINs through schools and others through community channels. LLINs can also be accessed by all households through mass distribution campaigns. For those these channels are unable to reach, such as new members of the population and those wishing to have different types and colours of nets, LLINS are made available through retail markets.

The LLIN retail market has much potential to fill in the gaps of required LLINs to meet universal coverage of nets in Nigeria. This is because routine distribution and mass campaigns do not cover the entire population – and as distribution campaigns provide standardised nets, it has not been used by everyone. LLINs through the commercial sector can provide consumers a choice of net sizes and to purchase additional nets.

However, LLIN distribution through the retail market faces various challenges, including a lack of investment by commercial sector players and low consumer demand for LLINs.

The UKaid-funded Malaria Consortium project, Support to the National Malaria Program (SuNMaP), has worked closely with partners since 2008 to help increase the demand for nets in Nigeria and achieve universal coverage of LLINs through support to the commercial sector. SuNMaP works with manufacturers and distributors to strengthen relationships with each other and their capacity to promote their nets, as well as to develop distribution channels to community levels. The project also works with state governments and the National Malaria Elimination Program to ensure that the public sector opens up the market to enable sales of LLINs.

This Learning Paper details the challenges and learning from this work. It presents Malaria Consortium’s unique total market approach as implemented through the SuNMaP programme to support the commercial sector in Nigeria, providing better understanding on how free distribution, mass campaigns and the commercial sector can work together harmoniously to achieve the highest possible LLIN coverage.

Developing a long lasting insecticidal net retail (LLIN) market in Nigeria is the fourth in a series of papers published on Malaria Control in Nigeria. It provides valuable insights into the challenges of designing malaria interventions that work and the factors which contribute or affect its success. Other papers in the SuNMaP series include:

1. Harmonisation of malaria control in Nigeria
2. Building capacity for creating demand in support of malaria prevention and control
3. Building capacity for universal coverage: Malaria control in Nigeria

View more of our Learning Papers at: www.malariaconsortium.org/learningpapers

Country: Nigeria

Keywords: Private sector | Community delivery | Vector control