Malaria surveillance, monitoring and evaluation: a reference manual
Second edition
Overview
This manual provides comprehensive guidance on making malaria surveillance a core intervention across all transmission settings. It positions surveillance as a dynamic tool to drive decision-making, guide resource allocation and shape intervention planning. By effectively using surveillance data, countries can target interventions to high-burden areas and populations, anticipate and prevent outbreaks, support the transition to elimination, and reduce the risk of re-establishment in areas that have achieved malaria-free status. The revised manual is aligned with new WHO resources on malaria elimination, control in emergencies and subnational tailoring of interventions.
The manual outlines methodologies for data collection, reporting, analysis and use tailored to different transmission settings. It provides strategies to integrate surveillance data within broader health information systems, ensuring sustainability and adaptability to emerging challenges such as climate change. It also provides guidance on monitoring antimalarial drug efficacy and resistance, vector and insecticide resistance, and outbreak detection and response.
Practical tools, standardized indicators, data visualization approaches and case studies support implementation at national and subnational levels. The manual addresses persistent gaps such as inadequate data quality, incomplete case detection and insufficient preparedness, and offers solutions that emphasize collaboration, capacity-strengthening and innovation to reduce malaria burden, accelerate towards elimination and sustain malaria-free status.
This edition supersedes the first edition published in 2018.
The manual includes a list of core indicators for malaria surveillance, monitoring and evaluation, which can be downloaded and consulted independently.
