The impact of Malaria-related expenditures on Malaria incidence and mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)

Despite the global, regional and country-specific efforts to combat malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), it poses a significant health challenge in the region. Given the decreasing global funding for malaria control, it is essential to examine the impact of tailored health expenditures on efforts to reduce malaria incidence and mortality rates in SSA. Using the WHO database on malaria, the study applies the dynamic system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) estimator to examine the effect of malaria-related expenditures on malaria incidence and mortality rates across 39 SSA countries from 2000 to 2021. The findings indicate that targeted healthcare expenditures significantly reduce the region's malaria incidence and mortality rates. In particular, private domestic investment and external funding play critical roles in achieving these reductions, while government funding is insignificant. Since external funding for malaria is beyond the direct control of SSA economies, there is an urgent need for innovative financing mechanisms to complement government efforts. The study recommends that Governments step up efforts by actively engaging the private domestic sector to substantially contribute to mitigating the malaria epidemic in the region, given its implications on private sector productivity.