Commonwealth leaders to halve malaria by 2023

Heads of Commonwealth countries on Wednesday announced their commitment to curb malaria by half in the next five years. This is in line with the theme of this year’s World Malaria Day – ‘Ready to Beat Malaria’ – calling on leaders to take action. According to a statement by Malaria No More UK, the announcement […]

Heads of Commonwealth countries on Wednesday announced their commitment to curb malaria by half in the next five years.

This is in line with the theme of this year’s World Malaria Day – ‘Ready to Beat Malaria’ – calling on leaders to take action.

According to a statement by Malaria No More UK, the announcement is made at the Malaria Summit London 2018, co-hosted by the governments of Rwanda, Swaziland and the United Kingdom. The Summit holds on the eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

The call is expected to profile significant commitments from governments, businesses and philanthropists ready to catalyse progress towards a goal of halving malaria.

With Commonwealth countries making up one-third of the world’s population and accounting for more than half the statistics for all malaria cases and deaths, globally, it is estimated that if the commitments are successful, 350 million malaria cases would be prevented and 650, 000 lives saved – especially of pregnant women and children under five, who are most at risk of the disease.

Renewed commitments to accelerate progress against malaria

The British Prime Minister, Theresa May on Tuesday, committed to contributing 100 million pounds to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria — which the private sector will match — to fund 26 million mosquito nets and ensure five million households are reached with indoor spraying. This is as the United Kingdom also announced a new malaria program in Nigeria worth £50 million which will run until 2024, as well as a £9.2 million fund for new research to develop new triple artemisinin combination treatment.

Also, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will extend its investments in malaria by an additional $1 billion (£700 million) through to 2023 to fund research and development efforts and to reduce the burden of the disease towards ending malaria for good. The Gates Foundation also pledged £50 million in matching funds against the UK’s £100 million commitment to the Global Fund, as the Global Fund makes commitments totalling $2 billion from 46 countries affected by malaria between 2018 and 2020.

For the most part, malaria-endemic countries and institutions committed to ending the menace responsible for 445, 000 deaths annually, will be driving the new initiative.

African leaders rise to the challenge

With Africa accounting for 90% of malaria cases and 91% of malaria deaths, experts at a recent RBM to End Malaria Partnership analysis, revealed that high-burden countries such as Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also face significant gaps in financing core malaria interventions over the next three years. Nigeria alone accounts for 27% of global malaria cases and faces a financial gap of US$ 1.4 billion to fully implement its national malaria strategic plan.

The African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), a coalition of 49 African heads of state and government working across country and regional borders to eliminate malaria by 2030, are leveraging their collective knowledge and influence to bring about accountability and action in the fight against malaria and are proving their dedication to this fight through some of the significant commitments to domestic financing on malaria being announced Wednesday.

In this light, Uganda has committed to establish a dedicated malaria fund – the Presidential Malaria Fund Uganda (PMFU) – to help mobilize additional resources of $785 million by 2020 to accelerate national progress against malaria.

While healthcare in conflict still remains a challenge for African governments, the United Nations Foundation’s ‘Nothing But Nets’ campaign commits to raising and providing UN partners with at least $5 million by the end of 2020 to help protect the most vulnerable populations from malaria including refugees, internally displaced persons and marginalised indigenous communities.

Panel discussion at the event. Photo: Malaria Summit, London

Shifting from the norm

As the disease and its victims grow resistant to traditional treatments and preventive measures and the numbers of global malaria cases shooting up for the first time in 2017, end malaria advocates are intensifying their call for private sector involvement in innovation and provision of research and development resources.

Against this backdrop, GlaxoSmithKline committing to invest an additional £175 million in its research and development efforts against malaria, including toward delivering a new single dose treatment for relapsing malaria and piloting implementation of the world’s first malaria vaccine. The leading pharmaceutical company anticipates these new interventions, which will be delivered on a not-for-profit basis, will reach over 3 million people by 2025.

Novartis will also invest more than $100 million through 2023 to advance research and development of next-generation treatments to combat emerging anti-malarial drug resistance including global clinical trials for its two new malaria drug candidates. This is as five crop protection companies, BASF, Bayer, Mitsui Chemicals, Sumitomo Chemical Company & Syngenta, launch ZERO by 40, a joint initiative supported by IVCC and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to accelerate development of innovative vector control tools and extend their commitments to help end malaria for good.

Bridging the data and information gap

New alliances are being formed for the sake of data and information dissemination on malaria incidences and interventions.

Although tracking mechanisms and functionalities are yet t be made known, ALMA the and Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance will commit to promoting regional and national malaria progress tracking mechanisms, allowing leaders to easily see and respond to progress and challenges.

Also, the Visualize No Malaria Initiative, backed by eight leading technology companies, are committing $2.6 million in cash and in-kind resources to expand its work in Southern Africa, enabling timely visual analytics for country-level officials and health workers to support malaria elimination planning and response.