Crowdsourcing Climate-Linked Malaria Surveillance with Zimbabwean Youth

Climate change is lengthening malaria transmission seasons and driving disease resurgence in southern Africa, especially Zimbabwe. While traditional control measures (nets, spraying, treatment) have reduced malaria, emerging climatic factors are undermining progress. Simultaneously, Zimbabwe’s population is very young – over 60% under 25 years old. Simultaneously, Zimbabwe’s population is very young – over 60% under 25 years old and highly connected by mobile technology . We developed a mobile/web crowdsourcing platform (“Mosquito Hunter”) to engage youth in real-time malaria surveillance and climate data collection. The open-source prototype app (https://mosquito-hunter.vercel.app) allows young volunteers to report mosquito breeding sites, upload photos, log environmental conditions, and access interactive educational modules on malaria–climate. Gamification elements (points, badges, certificates) and school-based outreach were used to motivate participation. We describe the platform’s design, the youth engagement strategy, and initial lessons from prototype development. This youth-driven approach can provide geolocated, contextual data that complements official health surveillance in high-burden, climate-vulnerable settings. By empowering Zimbabwean youth to become citizen-scientists, this initiative aims not only to improve situational awareness of malaria risk, but also to foster local ownership of public health and climate resilience.