Reaching the First Milestone of the GMAP
Remarks on the occasion of World Malaria Day 2009 By Professor Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Executive Director, RBM Partnership
On this World Malaria Day, the international community commits itself to eliminate malaria as a major global public health problem.
We have but twenty months to achieve the collective target of universal coverage of malaria control interventions by 2010. This is a vital stepping stone to realizing the Millennium Development Goals.
To spur action on a disease that affects 3.3 billion people, the malaria community has agreed to the Global Malaria Action Plan, the GMAP. It is the universal roadmap to ensure nationwide malaria control, elimination and eventual eradication.
I am pleased that OECD governments, endemic countries and private sector stakeholders have invested nearly USD 2 billion to the global malaria response in 2008. But it will be critical to commit significant new resources to finance existing solutions and roll out the plan in all malaria endemic countries.
One week ago in Oslo, I attended the launch of the Affordable Medicine Facility for malaria, the AMFm. This new initiative is one of the main building blocks of the Global Plan. The AMFm will put affordable life-saving malaria drugs within reach of millions of people, especially children, in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
If we can increase access to treatment to the same level of coverage achieved by many countries with insecticide treated nets and indoor spraying – we will continue to see more lives saved.
I am encouraged to see an expanding Partnership that is joined by new community based organizations, civil society and faith based groups. I strongly value the leadership of all constituencies in the RBM process that recognize the imperative of cooperation to achieve the final state of a malaria-free world.
This is a critical year for malaria. We have committed ourselves to significant undertakings to reach the 2010 malaria targets, the first milestone of the GMAP.
On World Malaria Day 2009, we rally for a single purpose: to show our political support to the Global Malaria Action Plan and to commit with vigour to its rapid and universal implementation.