PHA-Exchange> Africa Fighting Malaria Analysis

[claudio at hcmc.netnam.vn]

 from Philip Coticelli <pcoticelli at gmail.com> -----

Africa Fighting Malaria Analysis
--------------------------------

 AFM Africa Malaria Day Analysis  Richard Tren, Philip Coticelli, Roger Bate & 
Kathryn Boateng | 23 Apr 2007
Africa Fighting Malaria

Africa Malaria Day, April 25th, commemorates the 1.2 million people lost each 
year to a preventable and curable disease. Malaria is the biggest killer of 
African kids. Half a billion people suffer from it annually, reducing 
economiac productivity around the world. Political will and public funding to 
target this disease are increasing, but there is still room to improve efforts 
to measure, assess, and inform evidence-based policies and programs. Africa 
Fighting Malaria (AFM) provides analysis of:
OECD donor accountability for how public funds are spent on 
malaria<http://www.fightingmalaria.org/pdfs/afm-scorecard.pdf>. [Full Report 
<http://www.fightingmalaria.org/pdfs/AFM_Scorecard_report.pdf>]

The impact of WHOPES on the availability of long-lasting insecticidal 
nets<http://www.fightingmalaria.org/pdfs/AFM_WHOPES_LLN.pdf>, the dominant 
OECD donor strategy for malaria control.

And OECD donor targets for reducing malaria and the likelihood of achieving 
the Millennium Development 
Goals<http://www.fightingmalaria.org/pdfs/MDG_AFM_final.pdf>
.
AFM's malaria-donor scorecard<http://www.fightingmalaria.org/pdfs/afm-
scorecard.pdf>shows the US and UK to be notable exceptions to a largely opaque 
and insular donor community. Most donor agencies (15 out of 23) declined or 
ignored requests for basic program information. Of the 8 donor agencies that 
responded, only 5 provided an adequate amount of information about how malaria 
control funds were spent. Only one agency, USAID, provided detailed 
information on monitoring and evaluation of its malaria control spending.

Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LNs) are the most popular donor-funded malaria 
control intervention. AFM's 
analysis<http://www.fightingmalaria.org/pdfs/AFM_WHOPES_LLN.pdf>shows
one company, Vestergaard-Frandsen S.A., manufactures 75 percent of currently 
available LNs and maintains 60 percent of global production capacity. New 
applicant reviews by the World Health Organization Pesticide Evaluation Scheme 
(WHOPES) have taken two years on average. During this time, potentially 
qualified products are unable to compete for OECD public tenders requiring 
WHOPES recommendation. By restricting competition, donors have inadvertently 
kept prices high and limited the availability of life-saving LNs.

Donors have focused much more funding on procuring inputs like LNs than on 
measuring how these tools impact malaria cases and related deaths. AFM's 
analysis <http://www.fightingmalaria.org/pdfs/MDG_AFM_final.pdf> shows that 
most disease reduction targets, such as the Roll Back Malaria Partnership's 
goal to halve malaria by 2010 and the Millennium Development Goal to halt and 
reverse the spread of malaria by 2015, are immeasurable or not measured.

Most public funding for disease is vaguely evidence-based and so hardly-cost 
effective. The US President's Malaria Initiative is the only target-setting 
body to substantially invest in improving epidemiological data collection and 
surveillance.

Contact Details

Richard Tren
Africa Fighting Malaria
+1-202-223-3298
mailto:rtren at fightingmalaria.org 

Philip Coticelli
Africa Fighting Malaria
+1-202-223-3519
mailto:pcoticelli at fightingmalaria.org 


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