Cost implications of achieving a gender-integrated indoor residual spraying programme in southern Mozambique

Progress toward gender equality in the indoor residual spraying (IRS) workforce lags behind other areas of vector control implementation and research. One reason for this may be misconceptions about the cost of implementing IRS with a higher percentage of female staff. The assumption that employing more female spray operators increases costs may stem from the perception that women are less physically capable of performing the demanding work of IRS, resulting in lower productivity and requiring programmes to hire additional staff. The Tchau Tchau Malaria programme in southern Mozambique has achieved high levels of gender equality in its workforce and provides a valuable case study for analysing the impact of gender equality on spray operator salary costs during annual IRS campaigns.

This study examined data from the 2020/2021 campaign of the Tchau Tchau Malaria programme to understand how employing a high percentage of female spray operators affected the cost of salaries paid to spray operators during the training and implementation phases of the campaign. Salary cost estimates for the actual Tchau Tchau Malaria campaign were compared to a counterfactual scenario assuming a lower percentage of female SOs (30%), consistent with other IRS programmes in sub-Saharan Africa.

Approximately 58.5% of the 2182 spray operators employed by the 2020/2021 Tchau Tchau Malaria campaign were female. Male spray operators were slightly more productive than female spray operators. However, female spray operators were more likely to have worked with previous campaigns; therefore, the average cost of training for female spray operators was lower than the average cost of training for male spray operators. The total salary cost paid to spray operators for the Tchau Tchau Malaria campaign compared with the counterfactual scenario differed by less than 1%.

Analysis of the Tchau Tchau Malaria campaign in Mozambique, when compared to a counterfactual scenario with low gender equality, revealed that achieving a gender-integrated indoor residual spraying workforce had a minimal effect on spray operator salary costs, which represent a significant component of overall IRS programme costs.