Govt urged to ringfence sh12b malaria funds in next budget

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Young voices have asked Parliament to allocate and ring-fence shillings 12 billion in next year’s national budget to support the scale-up of malaria prevention and treatment in schools.

The demand is contained in a petition they presented to Parliament on November 20, 2025.

The petition was received by Aruu North MP Santa Okot (PPP), who represented chief guest Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa. 

Okot promised to forward their concerns to the Coalition of Parliamentarians to End Malaria in Africa (COPEMA), where she serves as co-chair.

“Despite progress, malaria continues to place a heavy burden on Ugandan children and families. The recent programme review highlighted significant funding gaps while the national strategic plan required $1billion (about shillings 3.65 trillion). Only $741million (about shillings 2.7 trillion) was mobilised,” Okot said.

Fast forward, Okot said that the country relies on donors who contribute over sixty per cent of malaria, while domestic financing accounts for less than 15 per cent, a trend she warned could undermine the gains made so far.

Colourful sitting

This transpired during a sitting of the Children’s Parliament. The latter is a platform where child representatives voice concerns and recommendations to influence key policy decisions affecting them.

It is supported by various civil society organisations and the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Malaria (UPFM). The Children’s Parliament mirrors the National House both in tradition and flair. And yesterday was no different.

The Speaker of the day, Faith Daniella Ikilai, a pupil at Cornerstone Junior School – Legacy Campus, arrived in full regalia of a gown and wig. She was escorted into the chambers, which were in Parliament’s Conference Hall, by a Sergeant-at-Arms carrying the mace. The latter is a symbol of authority without which the House cannot proceed.

The House was arranged in two flanks, with front-bench members on both sides comprising ministers, shadow ministers and a Leader of the Opposition. These were selected from schools that made the cut this year.

Malaria burden

Uganda is among the world’s high-burden malaria countries. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics, the country lost between 70,000 and 100,000 lives to malaria in 2023 alone.

With $500 million (about shillings 1.79 trillion) lost annually in treatment expenses, lost productivity and strain on the healthcare system.

Plenary

According to Samantha Thereza, who acted as the health minister, quick and innovative responses are imperative in stemming the disease, which not only causes deaths among young children but also fuels learner absenteeism in many schools.

Ibiaat, a student of Municipal Secondary School in Soroti district, pointed out the majority of schools in rural areas, especially in Teso, Lango and Busoga regions, experience a much higher malaria burden. Owing to their settings.

“The number of malaria cases ranges from 500 to as many as 1,500 per 1,000 learners annually, meaning the same child falls sick several times each year. Unfortunately, in boarding schools, the problem is even worse. Learners share dormitories, bathrooms and dining halls, making it easy for mosquitoes to bite many people in one night,” she stated.

“In fact, more than fifty per cent of young learners in these high burden areas suffer from chronic anaemia due to repeated malaria infection. This weakens blood flow to the brain, causes fatigue and weakens attention, turning every classroom into a silent struggle against sickness,” Ibiaat said.

Furthermore, she said that recent data show that malaria is now shifting and is no longer a disease of children. Today, surprisingly, children aged fifteen are the most affected, especially those in boarding schools.

While there remains lingering hope, as a result of recent indoor residual spraying of five boarding schools in Amuria and Soroti by the Pilgrim Protect Schools programme, there is still work that needs to be done. As far as lessening the costs is concerned.

“Protecting one child with indoor residual spraying costs shillings 2,600 per person or about shillings 1.3 million per school of five hundred learners. The full package of indoor residual spraying and intermittent treatment of school children is a little bit more expensive. About 36,000 per child or about sh18m per school,” she cited.

“But if medicines are donated, these costs drop to only sh6,000 per child or about sh3m per school,” Ibiaat added.

On the other hand, she listed spatial malaria emanators, devices that emit vapour to repel mosquitoes, as another smart option, the Government should consider integrating into the national school health policy. Each device, she said, costs sh10,000 and lasts a full year. The device, Ibiaat claimed, is capable of protecting an entire dormitory, hence reducing the cost to as low as sh100 per person per year.

School health policy

On her part, the shadow minister for Health, Fazzlat Laughvon from Mbuya Parents School, said that while the government has made efforts to distribute mosquito nets and other interventions, there is a need to step up health education. Laughvon noted that although many children spend more time at school than at home, most are inexperienced when it comes to basic first aid.

She called for a stronger school health policy that would, among other things, ensure that health clubs teach every child how to prevent malaria, and that teachers and school health prefects are trained to detect the disease early.

“We also need increased budget allocation for malaria in schools, because investing in children’s health is investing in Uganda’s future,” she remarked.

Ministry responds

Dr Daniel Kyabayinze, the director of public health at Ministry of Health (MOH), said: We are going to go back and look at our programming, the way we give resources.

As a parting shot, he asked the children to go and educate their peers and adults how to prevent malaria.

“All the things you have asked Dr Jane Ruth Aceng to do. Putting medicines in your schools, mosquito nets, sprays, and all the list as you presented it in your submission, she is going to look for the money to make it happen,” Kyabayinze pledged.

Amending PFMA

On Tuesday this week, during a high-level engagement with MPs on the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Malaria (UPFM), Peter Mbabazi, the board chairperson of the Malaria Youth Champions Uganda (MYCU) called for an amendment to the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) to make malaria a mandatory benchmark in approving national budgets.

The development, he said, would compel all Government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to allocate a fixed percentage toward the fight against the disease.

“The thinking is that there is a need for it to be updated and include malaria as a precondition for budget approval, and also allocate a percentage so that all MDAs can actually reflect on their budget that percentage. We already have a malaria prevention and treatment code given by the PSST (Ramathan Ggoobi) on the charter of accounts 000064," Mbabazi contended.

"It reflects on all MDA’s. So, there is already a pocket or a basket where you can allocate money and it is already in the system. What is now a challenge, it now depends on who feels what to allocate money to that budget code and yet we have all agreed that malaria is devastating our communities..." he further explained.