PNG SNT 2025 - Technical assistance to develop national malaria elimination strategy 2026-2030 of Papua New Guinea (PNG)

Malaria remains an infectious disease with a high public health relevance in Papua New Guinea (PNG). While substantial progress has been made in scaling-up key interventions and reducing the burden of malaria since the start of the Global Fund support to the PNG National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) in 2004, progress has stagnated in recent years. For PNG to progress towards the final goal of malaria elimination, the NMCP aims to move from a “one size fits all” approach to a more focused and tailored strategy of allocating interventions, thereby addressing heterogeneity in intervention coverage, disease burden, and operational realities within the country.

Over the course of the year 2025, the PNG NMCP has embarked on revising the country’s malaria strategy with a process that included a comprehensive malaria programme review (MPR), and consultations with local and international malaria experts and programme partners. The new “National Strategic Plan for Malaria (NSPM), 2026-2030 - A pathway towards elimination” aims to address different malaria burden strata with specific tailored intervention packages, incorporating the concept of subnational tailoring (SNT) of interventions and strategies.

This project aims to support the development of the new NSPM by providing technical assistance to the NMCP with a focus on SNT. Complementing the findings of the MPR 2025, the project provides analytical support grounded in evidence to help establish a strong foundation for the development of the NSPM 2026–2030. The core elements of the project include an epidemiological review of malaria indicators, malaria risk stratification, developing the eligibility of interventions by district (based on WHO and national guidelines and objectively quantifiable criteria), and the prioritization of interventions based on analytics and mathematical modelling. The purpose of these efforts is to inform strategic resource allocation for malaria control and elimination efforts based on available local evidence, with the ultimate goal of maximizing the health impact of the NMCP.

In addition, the project directly addressed a key recommendation from the Global Fund’s GC5/6 Technical Review Panel (TRP) concerning the need for malaria risk stratification and improved targeting and prioritization of interventions under PNG’s malaria grant.