NEWS: Malaria Consortium Response to the United Nations Resolution on Malaria

10 December 2009
London 10 December 2009: Malaria Consortium welcomes the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/64/L.28 2001-2010: A Decade to Roll Back Malaria in Developing Countries, Particularly in Africa.

The resolution, adopted by consensus on 7 December, welcomes the increased funding for malaria interventions and for research and development of preventive and control tools from the international community, through funding from multilateral and bilateral sources and from the private sector.

Malaria Consortium strongly believes that predictable financing is key to strengthening health systems and promoting universal and equitable access to high-quality malaria prevention and treatment services and thus endorses the Resolution.

Also welcome in the Resolution is the call to support the implementation of the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP), which guides Malaria Consortium’s work. The call to sustain support to the Global Fund to fight Aids TB and Malaria is also critical. Of particular importance is the acknowledgement in the Resolution that more must be done in the area of recruitment, training and retention of skilled health personnel.

Malaria Consortium also appreciates the concern expressed by the Resolution regarding resistant strains of malaria in various parts of the world. Evidence from our work with partners in South East Asia demonstrates that drug resistance is becoming a serious challenge and we thus welcome calls to increase remedial efforts. Similarly, the emphasis on the need to increase access to and availability of essential products and commodities is welcome as Malaria Consortium believes that supply and delivery obstacles represent major impediments to better health among the poor in Africa in particular. 

Though encouragement to international actors and initiatives in the Resolution is welcome, Malaria Consortium is anxious at the omission of specific references to the importance of support to national civil society and citizens groups. While financial and technical support to global, regional and national programmes is critical in the fight against malaria, Malaria Consortium finds that national networks, platforms and coalitions engaged in this struggle are too often under-resourced.

Moreover, the lack of due attention in the Resolution to the need to build the delivery and monitoring capacity of community-based organisations and national NGOs is worrying. Both international and national NGOs are critical links in the service delivery chain and should be acknowledged as such. The inclusion of specific calls to support civil society initiatives would be a welcome inclusion in the next Resolution. 

For more information, please contact Diana Thomas, [email protected]