Global Roadmap To End Malaria Launched At UN Summit

25 September 2008
The GMAP offers a comprehensive blueprint for reducing malaria. It provides timelines for delivering nets and drugs to all people at risk in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Americas, the Middle East and Eurasia. It also outlines a strategy for increasing investment in research for new tools to eliminate and eventually eradicate malaria globally. Research will cost at least $750 million annually over the next ten years, according to the plan's estimates.

"In Ethiopia, we provided universal access to protective nets in 18 months only," said Dr Tedros Adhanom, Ethiopia's Minister of Health and Chair of the RBM Partnership Board. "The challenge now is to make such successes work on a larger scale and in all affected regions. This is what the Global Malaria Action Plan will help us do."

Reflecting malaria's global scale, the plan is being launched today in all malaria endemic regions, including in the Philippines, Kenya, Mali and Brazil. It is endorsed politically at a UN Malaria Summit taking place at UN headquarters in New York.

During the New York launch event, co-hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Malaria No More, the British Government as well as the UN Special Envoy for Malaria, heads of state, business leaders, and international celebrities are expected to pledge their commitment to turning the RBM plan into action.

In his opening address at the UN General Assembly earlier this week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon requested world leaders to honor their commitments to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, including Goal 6 which addresses malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis. Mr. Ban cited leadership and partnerships as vital ingredients in combating malaria and other pressing global challenges.

Similar calls to action were echoed by several heads of states at this week's commencement of the 63rd Session of the General Assembly, including African Union President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and G8 leaders US President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Earlier this month at a malaria awareness campaign in Paris, Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking as President of the Council of the European Union, urged his international counterparts to mobilize around efforts to eradicate malaria.

The Global Malaria Action Plan is available for download at:   www.rollbackmalaria.org/gmap/

The Kaiser webcast of the Malaria Summit has been posted online at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/healthcast/milldev/25sep08.

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