Why invest in malaria

In 2019, with some support from African Leaders Malaria Alliance, the EMC conducted a business case for private sector investment for Malaria elimination in Zambia. The key findings from this study highlighted the following:

• Malaria reduces GDP growth by 1.3% per year due to lower productivity.
• Private sector employees in Zambia miss an average of 4 days for each malaria episode.
• Workers miss an average of 2.5 days of work per malaria infection, amounting to 8.7million missed days of work each year.
• Employees miss an additional 2.5 days to care for their families when they have malaria.
• Businesses lose between USD606-747 million in revenue and indirect costs from productivity losses.
• Businesses lose an additional USD15.2 million in direct costs for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of malaria in employees.
• Eliminating malaria will provide an economic return of between 15-29 times the investment.
• A resurgence could result in revenue losses of USD0.83 – 1.02 billion to Zambian businesses.
• We strongly believe in joining efforts by all sectors to achieve the goal of eliminating malaria in our beautiful country.
• Partnership with all sectors in eliminating malaria would benefit everyone, as there would be improved welfare of individuals, improved productivity of private sector companies and overall performance of the economy.