In 2014, the Malaria Elimination Roadmap was developed to catalyse regional collaboration and accelerate national efforts towards achieving a malaria-free APAC by 2030. The Leaders’ Dashboard was subsequently created in 2015 to help countries, funding bodies, and partners track their progress and identify problem areas, while allowing visibility of progress at national and regional levels.

While the dashboard has served its purpose, its current iteration is the result of a large-scale refresh that aims to improve its capabilities. With a focus on data visualisation and interactivity, the new dashboard will provide a more granular view of the region across time and geography. Built on Tableau and designed for easy usage, users will now be able to view the evolution of specific indicators over previous years, and at various levels – regional, sub-regional, and country-level.  

With an intuitive user interface and compelling visual representations of data, APLMA’s upgraded dashboard aims to represent more than just the progress of an entire region, but a guide to sustained and sustainable strategies towards malaria elimination.

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by parasites of the Plasmodium group. Transmitted through Anopheles mosquitoes, malaria poses a major public health challenge in the Asia-Pacific region. In severe cases, it can cause seizures, comas, or even death.

The Asia-Pacific region has made tremendous progress against malaria over the last decade. Unfortunately, the recent Covid-19pandemic, compounded with unexpectedly severe natural disasters, has led to a resurgence of malaria through the reassignment of financial and human resources to these emergencies.

The new dashboard groups countries by disease burden, displaying indicators relevant to each group and overall, and thematic dashboard tabs related to financing and cross border transmission, further improving the tools at the disposal of countries within APAC to focus on the most pressing needs.

APLMA’s dashboard will be the focal point of a regional, data-driven approach that policy makers and national leaders alike can count on to inform their decisions.

Leaders’ Dashboard: The Leaders’ Dashboard summarizes malaria epidemiology, policy and financing efforts for countries in the region, and provides an overview of progress made towards the goal of eliminating the disease. An interactive map and graphics allow users to focus on insights relevant to specific sub-regions.

‍Categories A/B/C: Three tabs, each of which focus on the different stages of regional elimination and the countries grouped within them based on their disease burden. These tabs contain relevant indicators and graphics with historical figures, showing progress over time.

‍Financing: The first of the thematic tabs, financing data over the current and previous funding cycle can be found here, together with funding breakdowns at the country and sub-regional levels.

‍Cross-Border: Also thematic in nature, this tab focuses on cross-border transmission within specific sub-regions and strategies employed by the constituent countries in managing the issue.

‍Country Profiles: This tab contains multitudes – a drop-down menu contains twenty-two profiles, each with indicators related to epidemiology, policy, financing, and GEDSI for a multifaceted point of view. Country resources specific to each country can be found within their profiles as well.

Every tab is fully exportable in .pdf format or as a consolidated graphic on a .ppt slide.

Over the course of multiple feedback and consultation sessions with regional experts, we have refined the Dashboard for greater focus on the areas that matter most, with a focus on key thematic areas to provide new insights on the burden of malaria in the region. The indicators displayed have been similarly curated for relevance to the different stages of elimination.  

This process of feedback and incremental change will continue to shape its features and capabilities in the years to come.  The dashboard will be reviewed and refreshed as we continue to consult with country and regional stakeholders, with our goal to provide clear and actionable information on malaria through different lenses. Beyond deepening our focus on financing and cross-border efforts, we intend to explore and illustrate the impact of climate change, GEDSI and zoonotic malaria within the Asia-Pacific.