Local Voices, Local Data: Why Localized Training Matters for Malaria Elimination in Africa

In a health facility in northern Togo, the way staff read their routine surveillance data can decide when a rise in malaria cases is noticed. Caught early, it is a trend on a chart. Caught late, it is full wards and children arriving with severe disease. That gap, between collecting numbers and acting on them, is what a World Health Organization training course is trying to narrow.

The problem it addresses is a familiar one across malaria programmes in Africa. Health workers are increasingly expected to analyse trends and steer responses using routine data, yet many have limited access to advanced, practice-oriented training that fits their language, their setting and their analytical needs. When learning is not accessible or tied to local context, the data may be gathered but not fully used for decisions.

WHO's answer is a course titled Malaria: Harnessing the power of routine health facility data. It is offered in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese on the WHO Academy online learning platform, as part of a blended learning programme. Dr Deepa Pindolia led its development, and localization was built in from the start. The reasoning is plain: data analysis is already complex, and learning it in a second or third language is not effective.

For Dr Atekpe Payakissim Somiabalo, coordinator of Togo's National Malaria Control Programme, having the training in French was critical. His priority, he said, is training operational staff in a language they know, so everyone understands why the data they collect matters for decisions. The stakes in Togo are concrete. The programme reports that malaria remains the country's leading cause of illness, accounting for 30% of outpatient consultations and 9% of hospitalizations. In 2024 it caused more than 2.18 million cases and 993 deaths. Asked whether he would recommend the course to colleagues, Somiabalo answered, "Yes, yes and yes," adding that any effective intervention rests on a better surveillance system, and that countries need contextualized operational action plans to fix the problems the data reveals and to improve coverage and performance indicators.

In Senegal, Médoune Ndiop saw the same effect. He was a monitoring, evaluation and surveillance specialist in the national programme from 2002 to 2025 and co-chaired its working group from 2018 to 2024. Teaching in the local official language, he said, deepens participants' understanding and their grasp of concepts, and makes interaction easier, especially in the analysis and interpretation exercises.

Thibaud de Chevigny, a malaria expert who facilitates the course, has spent more than a decade supporting programmes in the region. He calls localization foundational rather than optional. Most subnational programme teams and health information officers in Africa, he said, do not work in English. Learning in one's own language makes concepts clearer, makes training feel more inclusive and creates more opportunity to cascade the learning to others. He also argues for going beyond translation: when sessions use a country's own epidemiological data or case studies, participants engage more, and the discussion moves from theory to their daily reality.

The region's burden explains the urgency. According to the World malaria report 2025, 94% of malaria cases worldwide in 2024 occurred in the WHO African Region. Of the 610,000 malaria deaths that year, 95% were in the region, and three-quarters of those were children under five. De Chevigny describes routine surveillance as the backbone of malaria control, and more important as insecticide and drug resistance, climate change and reduced funding put pressure on programmes. His hope is that health workers leave with the confidence to use surveillance data as a decision-making tool, knowing their frontline role is central to reducing the burden. Whether that confidence translates into earlier detection in places like northern Togo is what the programmes will need to show next.