PHA-Exchange> UN-BACKED PARTNERSHIP SETS AMBITIOUS FUNDING TARGETS TO COMBAT MALARIA

[claudio at hcmc.netnam.vn]

 from Vern Weitzel <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au> -----

UN-BACKED PARTNERSHIP SETS AMBITIOUS FUNDING TARGETS TO COMBAT MALARIA

New York, Apr 23 2007  2:00PM
Just ahead of Africa Malaria Day, marked each year on 25 April, the United 
Nations-backed Roll Back 
Malaria Partnership today announced that it has set ambitious new targets to 
attain funding to fight 
the disease in Africa.

The group hopes that half of all malaria grant applications worldwide and 80 
per cent in African 
countries, where over 90 per cent of the 1 million global malaria deaths 
yearly occur, receive the 
necessary funding.

In many African countries, malaria is the leading cause of death, with one 
child dying from the 
disease every 30 seconds.

The Partnership was created in 1998 by the UN World Health Organization 
(<"http://www.who.int/en/">WHO), the UN Children’s Fund 
(<"http://www.unicef.org/">UNICEF), the UN 
Development Programme (<"http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/">UNDP) and the 
<"http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,pagePK:34382~piPK:34439~theS
itePK:4607,00.html">World 
Bank. It now brings together governments affected by malaria, international 
development agencies, 
academic institutions and others aiming toward the common goal of halving the 
global malaria rate by 
2010.

Every year, grants are awarded, mostly by the 
<"http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/">Global Fund to 
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, to countries based on an assessment of 
the technical needs of 
the programmes requesting support.

Over six years, the Fund, a UN-backed international public/private partnership 
which is the world’s 
largest donor in curbing malaria, has approved grants totally $2.6 billion.

However, in the latest round of assessments last November, less than a third 
of all applications 
were deemed to be of sufficient quality to receive support.

“This is the first phase of a massive initiative both to ensure sustained 
funding and improve 
countries’ ability to achieve impact,” said Awa Marie Coll Seck, the 
Partnership’s Executive Director.

“Success breeds success,” she continued. “We all need to make the money 
work better and achieve 
results if we are to secure predictable funding and meet ambitions malaria 
control targets over the 
next three years.”

Anti-malarial medicines are crucial in the fight, alongside other measures 
such as 
insecticide-treated mosquito nets and indoor residual spraying.

The first-ever Africa Malaria Day was on 25 April 2000, when African leaders 
from 44 
malaria-affected countries gathered in Abuja, Nigeria, for the African Summit 
on Malaria. At the 
summit, the first of its kind on the continent, participants signed the 
historic Abuja Declaration 
which commits Governments to fighting the disease with a view to halve it by 
2010.
___________________

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: 
http://radio.un.org/



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