Combining malaria control with rural electrification : social and behavioural factors that influenced the design, use and sustainability of solar-powered mosquito trapping systems (SMoTS) for malaria elimination on Rusinga Island, western Kenya

Chapter 1 presents the background information relevant to the subject matter and methods of this thesis. These include the application of social and behavioural sciences in malaria control, the SolarMal project and malaria in Kenya. It also presents the research objective, question and design that informed this thesis. Chapter 2 systematically documented and analysed how the mosquito trapping technology and related social contexts mutually shaped each other and how this mutual shaping impacted the design and re-design of the intervention. Our analysis focused on the design, re-design and piloting of the innovative approach to controlling malaria largely before its field implementation had started. During the pre-intervention year, various aspects of the intervention were re-designed ahead of the project roll-out. Changes to the technology design included removal of carbon dioxide from the blend, trap improvements and re- design of the electricity provision system. In order to gain and maintain the support of the community and organisations on the island, the project adapted its implementation strategies regarding who should represent the community in the project organisation team, who should receive solar-powered mosquito trapping systems (SMoTS), and in which order the systems should be rolled out. This process involved not only the project team and the producers of the different components of SMoTS, but also included feedback from the residents of Rusinga Island. This process of incorporating feedback from a broad range of stakeholders utilized data from the entomological, technical and socio-behavioural researches as well as data from more broad engagements with the social environment of the study population and setting. The analysis demonstrates how system innovation theory helps to provide insights into how a promising malaria control intervention evolves and matures through an interaction between technical and social phenomena. This part of the study demonstra