The world is at a potential turning point in the fight against malaria. We are in a good position - better than ever before - to scale up efforts using existing tools and proven solutions to tackle malaria. International statements on malaria demonstrate that political will exists, however what is needed is that these political commitments on paper are followed by concrete actions.

In 2000, African Heads of State met in Abuja, Nigeria, and agreed a political plan of action to halve the malaria burden by 2010. The Abuja Declaration of April 2001 included a commitment for African Union countries to allocate 15% of national budgets to the health sector. When they reconvened in 2006 it became clear that although the Abuja targets had not yet been met, there had been some progress made. It was agreed in the 2006 Maputo Declaration that accelerated action towards universal access to malaria services was needed.

 
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the heart of the global development agenda include both specific and related goals for addressing malaria. Goal 6 sets targets for malaria control to reduce morbidity and mortality. Those goals referring to poverty reduction, infant and maternal morbidity and mortality will also require malaria to be tackled if they are to successfully reach the targets by 2015.

 

The Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partnership was launched in 1998 by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank to provide a coordinated global approach to fighting and preventing malaria. By bringing together donors, NGOs, endemic countries, the private and public sectors and local community groups, RBM aims to ensure malaria remains high on the development agenda.

 

 

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