African leaders launch new malaria alliance

from Paul Chinnock, TropIKA.net

The leaders of 20 African nations, meeting in New York during the UN General Assembly, have launched ALMA (the African Leaders Malaria Alliance), in order to achieve a united approach in efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on malaria. According to these ambitious goals there will be universal access to malaria control interventions by the end of 2010 and all preventable malaria deaths will be avoided by 2015.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said, "By establishing ALMA today, we are now creating a critical forum and mechanism for advocacy, action, and follow-up on the implementation of these noble goals." The goals were ambitious but achievable. He reminded those present at the launch that, with an estimated 500 million annual cases, Africa is the continent most affected by malaria, accounting for 86% of all cases and 91% of all malaria deaths worldwide. The disease is responsible for a quarter of all deaths of African children under five years.

Convened by President Kikwete, ALMA is the first Head of State-level assembly expressly dedicated to ending deaths from the disease. The intention is to provide a high level forum to ensure efficient procurement, distribution, and utilization of malaria control interventions; the sharing of most effective malaria control practices; and ensure that malaria remains high on the global policy agenda.

Richard Sezeibera, health minister of Rwanda which will participate in ALMA, told the BBC that: "Malaria stills kills more people in Africa than HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis combined ... we need more funds to fight it. There's been a lot of mobilization by political leaders and this has brought results on the ground. So this launch will certainly add momentum and impetus to what is already happening on the ground in Africa".

Welcomed

Reaction to the launch of ALMA has so far been enthusiastic. WHO Director General Margaret Chan described it as a critical step in the fight against malaria.The UN Special Envoy for Malaria, Ray Chambers, told VOA that tremendous benefits would be reaped by the initiative. He described meeting the malaria MDGs as, "a massive undertaking unlike anything that has ever been done before" and said there was no chance of meeting the goals without the active participation of African heads of state: "In many countries, only half the people who have nets are actually sleeping under them. The leader of each country can encourage the people to sleep under that net each and every night".

Also speaking to VOA, Doctor Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance said he was encouraged by the launch of ALMA but for it to succeed African countries and their international counterparts must keep the commitments they had already made: "We need to continue investing in the response, building on the success today, fixing problems in every country. So that requires every African government to keep their commitments to provide 15 % of their national budgets towards the health sector...and if that doesn't happen then we're not going to see this goal met." So far, he said, few African governments had met the 15% target.

He added that the international community must also meet its commitment to support Africa towards its attainment of the malaria MDGs: That would require full funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He said the Fund was now in "a massive funding crisis" and was facing a $5 billion shortfall in 2010.