Sub-national Tailoring of Interventions for Malaria Control and Elimination: A Scoping Review with Evidence Synthesis of Lessons to Shape Future Efforts

This research project is a scoping review titled “Sub-national Tailoring of Interventions for Malaria Elimination: A Scoping Review of Lessons to Shape Future Efforts.” The purpose of the review is to synthesize global evidence on how context-specific strategies have been implemented to combat malaria at subnational levels, particularly in high-burden regions like sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and other Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The review is builds on the World Health Organization’s Subnational Tailoring (SNT) approach, introduced under the High Burden to High Impact (HBHI) initiative, which promotes data-driven, localized interventions to optimize limited resources and improve outcomes. The study focuses on the general population, as well as subpopulations such as those classified as vulnerable groups, especially children under five and pregnant women. The study explores tailored interventions such as insecticide-treated nets (TN), intermittent preventive treatment, particularly for pregnant women (IPTp), infants (IPTi), and schoolchildren (IPTc), and other emerging strategies such as indoor residual spraying (IRS). The study seeks to answer three core questions: (1) What processes and strategies enhance the success of tailored malaria elimination programs? (2) How does subnational tailoring improve resource management? (3) What constraints hinder the effectiveness of these approaches? Using the Arksey and O’Malley framework for scoping reviews and the PICO model to identify the outcome of such interventions, the study will systematically map existing literature across databases like PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Scopus. It will also incorporate grey literature and policy documents from trusted sources such as WHO, CDC, and Malaria Atlas Project (MAP). Expected outcomes include a comprehensive synthesis of implementation strategies and outcomes, barriers, enablers, and contextual insights that have shaped malaria elimination efforts globally. These findings will inform future policy and programmatic decisions in malaria-endemic countries, especially Nigeria, as they scale up SNT strategies. Ultimately, the review aims to guide more effective, equitable, and sustainable malaria interventions tailored to local needs.