Abstract:
The study main objective was to explore the implementation of subsidy ITNs vouchers scheme, the experience from Chunya District, specific objectives was on examining malaria incidence, investigating subsidy insecticide treated nets (ITNs) vouchers coverage and identifying challenges faced by subsidy ITNs vouchers program actors and beneficiaries during the implementation. This study was descriptive cross-sectional, applied a triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methods. Information‟s on malaria incidence and subsidy ITNs vouchers coverage was obtained from soft and hard copies archived records and reports by using checklist extracted from the District Medical Office. Information on challenges experienced during the implementation was obtained through an in-depth interview by involving three key participants, who were malaria focal person, community leader and selected woman rearing a child as program beneficiary were involved. Data analysis involved summarization and import in micro-soft excel for quantitative data for table and figure. For qualitative data atlas.ti was used for grounded theory and content analysis. Overall findings indicated the decline in malaria incidence as DMO‟s report depicted from 34% in 2012 to 9.2% for out-patient department (OPD) and 10% for in patient in the year 2013. Further findings revealed that, 9,380 pregnant women were identified in 2013, only 2,915 received subsidy ITNs vouchers equal to 31%. Also, findings revealed a total 5,163 of subsidy ITNs vouchers distributed to pregnant women in 2014, but a report was blank for the number of pregnant women received. Furthermore, majority of participants have knowledge about subsidy voucher. Also, findings observed that, some community members missed their share. Challenges identified were poor communication and coordination between actors. Subsidy ITNs vouchers scheme has shown to contribute in reducing malaria incidence despite some setbacks those emerged. It is necessary for the health sector management to rectify weaknesses observed for improvement during future intervention of the same nature.
