On Friday 21 May, health ministers of countries represented on the Boards of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria met in Geneva for a luncheon hosted by the two organizations and attended by a variety of partners in the fight against malaria.

RBM Executive Secretary Awa Coll-Seck welcomed the participants, highlighting malaria control as a crucial element in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, outlining the progress of the RBM Partnership to date, and emphasizing the need for increased funding to scale up the fight against malaria.

Global Fund Executive Director Richard Feachem called on countries to raise their voices in support of the Global Fund to ensure continued donor financing in order to achieve the dream of "driving from Cairo to Nairobi or Johannesburg to Maputo through a malaria-free zone."

The highlight of the luncheon was the sharing of experience between countries as the health ministers from Ghana, Mozambique, Zambia and Cameroon outlined the successes and challenges they had faced in rolling back malaria, spurring a lively and informative discussion that closed with a re-endorsement of the partnership approach and a call to all to keep malaria high on the development agenda.