AFRICA MALARIA REPORT 2003
Contents

In October 1998, together with the President of the World Bank and the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, we launched Roll Back Malaria as a catalyst for a renewed global commitment to tackle a disease that has been ignored by the world for far too long - a single disease that puts a brake on development, particularly in Africa.

This report from UNICEF and WHO suggests that, in 2003, malaria remains the single biggest cause of death of young children in Africa and one of the most important threats to the health of pregnant women and their newborns. However, there are clear signs that the movement to Roll Back Malaria is having an impact. The combined strategies suggested in 1998 for reducing the burden of malaria (insecticide-treated nets, prompt access to treatment, and prevention of malaria in pregnancy) are now widely accepted; their application on a large scale throughout Africa is under way.

Although coverage of individual interventions, such as insecticide-treated nets, is still far too low, the good news is that there is a clear trend towards increasing coverage, and other encouraging moves - a change in government taxation policies

on nets and netting materials, for example, and the development of Africa-based industrial production of nets - that will help sustain this trend.

Parasite resistance to previously effective low-cost drugs is an enormous and growing problem, but governments are now fully engaged in this challenge, monitoring the development of resistance and energetically pursuing the most promising options for more effective treatment.

The financial resources for fighting malaria are increasing. The establishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is providing significant new grants to help countries accelerate implementation of their plans to Roll Back Malaria. In addition, funds made available to improve health under debt-relief initiatives are being used to finance malaria interventions in some countries.

Our two organizations remain firmly committed to working together, with our other partners and with Africa, to achieve the ambitious goals for Roll Back Malaria set in Abuja on 25 April 2000 and agreed to by African heads of state. We intend that this report should be the first of a regular series, tracking progress towards achievement of these goals and of the Millennium Development Goal for malaria.