European Advocates Ready to Mobilise Around New Global Malaria Blueprint

25 September 2008
Global Malaria Action Plan: A Framework for Joint Action

The launch of the first single comprehensive global blueprint to fight malaria  - the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP) - signals a key moment for European malaria advocates to strengthen and consolidate their work to ensure that European leaders, decision makers, donors, the private sector and civil society take resolute and rigorous action towards a malaria-free world.

Developed by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM), the GMAP offers a detailed framework for the ongoing fight against malaria, outlining how much and what it will take to reach the 2010 goal of universal coverage of malaria prevention and treatment.

The European Alliance Against Malaria (EAAM) - a committed group of civil society organizations from Brussels, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom working to increase funding and improve malaria programmes - will utilize the GMAP to strengthen and expand their efforts for European action in a global context.

A moment of optimism and opportunity

In the past decade the combination of increased political will and practical tools have proven to work and save lives. The malaria landscape has been transformed due to greater funding, collaboration and scaling up of control efforts. There is now strong and solid evidence from some endemic countries that demonstrates malaria efforts are delivering remarkable improvements in reducing illness and death by more than 50 percent, as outlined in the GMAP.

EAAM shares the sense of excitement that, after what many consider decades of neglect, there is a growing global commitment to fight malaria. This increased momentum, combined with strengthened partnerships, has both the power and potential to finally, and lastingly, eliminate the human suffering and economic loss malaria brings.

Enormous malaria burden remains and action is imperative

Despite the recent increase in global funding for malaria and intensified control efforts, the devastating impact and burden of this disease continues;

    * Some 881,000 people died from malaria in 2006
    * Africa bears the brunt of the disease - 91% of malaria deaths are in Africa
    * 85% of deaths are in children under 5 (8 out of 10 malaria deaths globally)
    * Only 3% of African children under 5 received life saving treatment in 2006
    * Insecticide treated nets protected only 125 million people in 2007, whilst 650 million are at risk

(Source: WHO World Malaria Report 2008)

The GMAP clearly identifies what is needed to align strategies and action, and the funding required in the short, medium and longer term for the global malaria community to work towards a malaria-free world (*see specific goals and targets below).

Investing in malaria pays

EAAM believes that it makes clear economic sense to invest in malaria for both endemic and donor countries. The significant resources now being dedicated to malaria have produced clear and powerful results. These are highlighted in the GMAP and demonstrate the quick and spectacular return on investment in malaria prevention and control.

As the GMAP outlines, malaria prevention and treatment saves more lives per dollar spent and has a greater impact on health in Sub-Saharan African than all other health interventions, expect childhood immunization. The cost benefits of investing in malaria are compelling, and the results are tangible not only in saving lives, but in helping to build stronger health systems and the economies of the poorest countries in the world.

EAAM will use the GMAP to support its efforts in demanding decisive and urgent action to tackle malaria as part of global efforts to reduce poverty and meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Further information:          www.europeanallianceagainstmalaria.org

www.rollbackmalaria.org

*Specific Goals and Targets for Malaria in GMAP 

    * Achieve universal coverage for all populations at risk with locally appropriate interventions for prevention and case management by 2010 and sustain universal coverage until local field research suggests that coverage can gradually be targeted to high risk areas and seasons only, without risk of a generalized resurgence
    * Reduce global malaria cases from 2000 levels by 50% in 2010 and by 75% in 2015
    * Reduce global malaria deaths from 2000 levels by 50% in 2010 and to near zero preventable deaths in 2015
    * Eliminate malaria in 8-10 countries by 2015 and afterwards in all countries in the pre-elimination phase today
    * In the long term, eradicate malaria world-wide by reducing the global incidence to zero through progressive elimination in countries.