Zimbabwe

For four years, 2014 through to 2017, PMI sprayed four districts (Chimanimani, Mutare, Mutasa, and Nyanga) in Manicaland Province. In 2018, IRS operations in Manicaland were transitioned to the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) to accommodate rotation from pirimiphos-methyl to DDT per the Zimbabwe Insecticide Resistance Management Plan, and the project began implementing IRS in Mudzi and Mutoko Districts in Mashonaland East Province. The project also continued to provide limited technical and material support to the GoZ spray campaigns in four districts in Manicaland Province.

In 2020, VL Zimbabwe targeted 147,636 structures in two districts, Mudzi and Mutoko District from November 2 to December 14, 2020. A total of 133,078 structures were sprayed out of 136,774 structures found by spray operators in the targeted districts, resulting in a coverage rate of 97.3%.

In 2021, VectorLink transitioned to include technical assistance to the NMCP to support IRS in five districts of Mashonaland East Province, on the job training for entomological surveillance in prioritized districts and continued conducting routine entomological surveillance in three sentinel sites and insecticide resistance in four sentinel sites. A total of 446,917 rooms were targeted in five districts in Mashonaland East Province from October 13, 2021, to January 8, 2022. A total of 450,690 rooms were sprayed out of 462,608 rooms found by spray operators in the targeted districts, resulting in a coverage rate of 97.4%. The IRS campaign was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project worked with the NMCP to strengthen COVID-19 mitigation measures.

In year five (March 2022 – February 2023), PMI VectorLink’s key goal and objectives are:

• Support the 2022 IRS campaign with technical assistance in environmental compliance (EC) and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) to five districts in Mashonaland East Province, including the two previously PMI-supported districts for direct spraying implementation – Mutoko and Mudzi.
• Support IRS trainings in Mashonaland East Province focusing on EC and M&E activities to improve the overall spraying campaign.
• Share with NMCP VectorLink’s best practices and lessons learnt from the 2021 IRS campaign to support the national 2022 IRS campaign.
• Conduct insecticide resistance monitoring in four sentinel sites – three in Mashonaland East Province and one in Manicaland – and wall bioassay, vector density monitoring, and other vector behavioral studies in three sentinel sites of Mashonaland East Province.
• Provide NMCP with technical support to close gaps in their DHIS 2 system to develop entomology indicators, training manuals and standard operating procedures and train NMCP’s national level staff.
• In coordination with the NMCP and partners, implement a landscape analysis on unreached populations/IRS refusals in high refusal rate districts.
• Develop the supplemental environmental assessment (SEA) given that the current one is expiring in October 2022.

Success Stories:

Strengthening Entomological Capacity for Malaria Elimination in Zimbabwe