REVIEW article
Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Implementation Science
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frhs.2025.1593923
Challenges and Opportunities for greater public-private partnership for the implementation of the WHO Operational Framework for Building Climate Resilient Health Systems to improve malaria control and elimination in Sub-saharan Africa: a rapid review
Provisionally accepted
Sheila Lumumba1*
Samuel Kamau2Isaac Ntwiga3Josphat Mwangi Muchangi4Jackline Kiarie3Sarah Kosgei4Moses Mwamburi2George Kimathi3- 1Institute of Capacity Development, Amref Health Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
- 2Reinit Research Limited, Nairobi, Kenya
- 3Amref Health Africa, Institute of Capacity Development, Nairobi, Kenya
- 4Amref Health Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The relationship between climate change and malaria is complex, with both predictable and unpredictable aspects. The impacts of climate change may promote mosquito breeding, increase parasite development rates and extend the geographical range of malaria vectors through increased temperature and rainfall. In addition, climate change influence transmission of malaria indirectly through social and economic pathways. The gains made in malaria control are evidently under threat. Partnerships to build for health system strengthening activities for malaria control in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) should be harnessed to implement the WHO Operational Framework in SSA.This review follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) guidelines. A search strategy was formulated based on the PECOS framework using BOOLEAN operators 'AND' and 'OR' for all possible combinations of the following search teams: public-private sector partnerships, public health, and Sub-Saharan Africa. We identified 173 research papers from our database searches, and this systematic review includes 11 articles focusing on the objective of this study.The included studies identified challenges such as ineffective legal and policy frameworks, bureaucracy, limited buy-in and adherence to guidelines by private partners and a lack of systemic integration of climate risk assessments in health planning among others. On the other hand, opportunities lie within the health workforce, essential medicines and technologies, and emergency preparedness and management. These include health workforce education and training through massive open online courses, proper response targeting in partnership with the private sector, and co-production mechanisms for climate change and malaria research.PPPs remain a viable alternative in the adaptation of the WHO Operational Framework despite the challenges they face. This is particularly the case when the technical and financial capacities of the countries in the SSA region are considered. There are lessons to be derived and best practices to be instituted from case studies of previous partnerships, especially in malaria control.
Keywords: Public Private Partnerhips, Malaria, Climate change, implementation, WHO framework
Received: 14 Mar 2025; Accepted: 20 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lumumba, Kamau, Ntwiga, Muchangi, Kiarie, Kosgei, Mwamburi and Kimathi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sheila Lumumba, Institute of Capacity Development, Amref Health Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.