Malaria kills an African child every 30 seconds and is one of the continent's leading causes of death - the leading cause in many countries. Africa accounts for as many as 90% of malaria deaths worldwide, estimated at between one and three million. Across the continent, the primary victims are children under five and pregnant women. The Roll Back Malaria Partnership, an initiative of the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank, is an important part of the fight against malaria, mobilizing support and resources and forming partnerships with international organizations.
This week, to mark Africa Malaria Day, the executive director of the partnership, Dr. Awa Marie Coll-Seck, announced that it was planning to help local organizations improve their success rate in applying for grants to fight malaria. allAfrica's Brian Kennedy spoke with Dr. Coll-Seck about the work of the partnership and the state of the war against malaria.
Why is the work of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership important?
Rollback Malaria (RBM) is an initiative involving a lot of partners. Our role is to facilitate the fight against malaria, but also to create the consensus necessary to have the same message and same strategies. For Roll Back Malaria, what is important is to document successes, to share them with the world and to have mechanisms for countries to learn from each other. Another really important point is advocacy to mobilize more resources because it is key to have enough money to make interventions and have an impact. I would also like to [mention] the role of harmonizing the work of partners… It is the first time partners really have mechanisms to work together.
How would you assess the progress of the fight against malaria?
We are in a good position to conquer malaria because we now have very clear strategies, we have more money than ever before - US$1 billion for 2006 – and we will have even more in 2007. The Global Fund [the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria] gives two-thirds of the financial support the countries have now. You also have the U.S. Presidential Initiative, the World Bank booster program, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, bilateral supporting countries like France, and also a new mechanism, UNITAIDS, a financial mechanism using taxes on airfares.
This is really a new situation. We also have more partners coming from everywhere to support countries. What we are seeing at the country level is more results, more coverage, and some countries are already seeing an impact, because they are seeing mortality declining. We need to admit that it was very different two, three years ago and I think now we can really have a lot of hope.
How can groups involved in the fight against malaria use this increase in funding, support and greater public awareness?
What is important is not to think all this is enough, because we need around $3 billion a year. But with what we have we can already show results. New partners, and this money, shows that in the future if we continue like this, we may have really concrete results, like [we have] in Rwanda, in Zambia, in Mozambique, also South Africa or countries where malaria is not at a high level. We also have countries like Mali, Senegal, Benin, Togo, where coverage is becoming very high. We really need to build on that to ensure that in 2010 our objective to decrease by half the burden of malaria can be reached.
You mentioned the importance of advocacy. Why is public awareness important both in Africa and the donor countries?
Today we have more and more work done on advocacy in the North, particularly with congressmen and parliamentarians. In the United Kingdom, we have a group of parliamentarians, all working together to support the fight against malaria and to pressure the UK to be involved in what people are doing in the world and to support countries. You also have in the U.S. the 25th of April – Africa Malaria Day. It will be a day with a lot of activities at the White House. You have the European Union – Parliament – a lot of activities there.
At global level all these things are very important to increase the money given to the Global Fund by G8 countries but also by all the donor countries. At country level, you also have a lot of advocacy to put malaria as a priority… not only on the agenda of G8, but also the local agenda, the national agenda. We are also involved with more partners, particularly NGOs, to ensure that implementation is well done. One of our partners, just today, [the singer] Yvonne Chaka Chaka, a goodwill ambassador of UNICEF and Roll Back Malaria, was in Geneva to use voice as an advocacy tool.
What role can the media play to increase public awareness?
In Africa, a lot [of people get] news and information from the media, particularly radio. In some countries we are doing training for journalists, sometimes we organize visits in the field for journalists because they have a very important role to play.
Before you became the executive director of Roll Back Malaria, you worked for UNAIDS and also served as health minister of Senegal. How did these jobs prepare you for your current position?
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To have consensus at the country level it can take a year just to get the private sector, academia, researchers and implementers, all together, to agree. You also need to prioritize for budgets. This [experience] can help you, when you are at the global level, to know how things can be difficult, but also [to know] how you can put pressure on some governments.
I am not afraid to work with NGOs; I know what the role of NGOs is because they are the ones [working] at community level, where behavior changes [are needed] – using bednets, taking medication.
Why is Africa Malaria Day important?
The theme of Africa Malaria Day is leadership, partnership and results. The leadership at global level and at country level is very important if you really want to conquer malaria. But also partnership done in a harmonized way – partners supporting countries and not placing new burdens on them with different types of programs. All this… is key to having results. Results are more and more now very clearly documented. I would like people to be more positive and for everybody to work to ensure that we have more results, not complaining or criticizing everything and not doing anything. We need to work together; it is one of the conditions for success.
