Speak Up Africa Rallies Legends for Polio, Malaria Knockout

RABAT – As Africa’s biggest football spectacle reached its climax in Rabat, a parallel campaign off the pitch sought to harness the game’s influence for an equally high-stakes contest: eliminating polio and malaria on the continent.

On the eve of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, advocacy organisation Speak Up Africa convened football leaders, policymakers, global health partners, athletes, youth groups and civil society actors for the launch of Speak Up Africa in Action, a new sport-for-health platform designed to accelerate progress against two of Africa’s most persistent public-health threats.

The initiative, unveiled against the backdrop of a sold-out AFCON tournament, comes at a fragile moment for health programmes across the continent. Funding uncertainty, competing global crises and declining public trust have placed pressure on immunisation and disease-control efforts that had made steady gains over the past decade.

Speak Up Africa in Action is intended to turn the visibility and emotional pull of sport into sustained political commitment, public engagement and community-level action.

“Africa has the leadership, credibility and community trust needed to end polio and malaria,” said Yacine Djibo, founder and executive director of Speak Up Africa. “This platform brings those strengths together, using the power of sport to reinforce trust and sustain momentum where it matters most.”

From tournament moments to long-term action

Conceived as a recurring, travelling platform embedded in major sporting and cultural events, Speak Up Africa in Action combines high-level policy dialogue, athlete advocacy, youth engagement and storytelling. The aim is to ensure that attention generated during headline events like AFCON translates into measurable outcomes long after the final whistle.

The Rabat activation placed particular emphasis on Kick Out Polio, a campaign delivered in partnership with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Although Africa was certified wild-polio-free in 2020, variant poliovirus outbreaks continue to be detected in several countries, underscoring the complexity of the final phase of eradication.

Using football’s language of teamwork and collective responsibility, the campaign calls on governments, parents and communities to ensure that every child is vaccinated, while urging sustained political and financial commitment.

Malaria fight keeps centre stage

The AFCON activation also highlighted the Zero Malaria Football Club, an alliance of prominent football figures advocating for malaria elimination. Launched in 2023 by former stars Luís Figo and Khalilou Fadiga, the initiative supports the African Union-led Zero Malaria Starts with Me campaign.

Despite being preventable and treatable, malaria remains one of Africa’s deadliest diseases, particularly among children under five. Recent declines in international health financing have raised concerns about the sustainability of malaria programmes in several high-burden countries.

“Football has always been about teamwork and finishing what we start,” Figo said. “This is a match we can, and must, win.”

Anchoring advocacy in communities

Beyond high-profile advocacy, Speak Up Africa used the AFCON platform to formalise a partnership with Tibu Africa, a pan-African organisation that uses sport to advance education, social inclusion and community development. The memorandum of understanding signals a shift toward embedding health advocacy in long-term, community-based initiatives rather than one-off campaigns.

By working with local actors, the partners aim to deepen trust, counter misinformation and support vaccination and malaria-prevention efforts at the grassroots level.

Former CAF secretary general Hicham El Amrani said football institutions have both the reach and responsibility to engage on public health. “Football is not only a sport. It carries social obligations,” he said. “By engaging in the fight against polio and malaria, the game can help deliver victories that matter far beyond the pitch.”

The Rabat event formally launched Speak Up Africa in Action as a recurring platform that will roll out across the sports calendar, aligning with major tournaments and cultural moments across the continent.