PRESIDENT of Guinea-Bissau Umaro Sissoco Embaló and Chair of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), has called upon African countries to prioritise malaria in their national development agendas, especially by allocating resources in their domestic budgets to eliminate malaria.
During his visit to Tanzania to strengthen cooperation between the two countries, President Embaló emphasised on the importance of Africa securing necessary resources to win the fight against the ailment.
The ALMA Chair noted that progress against malaria in Africa has stagnated, warning that the continent is at the centre of a perfect storm that threatens to disrupt essential life-saving malaria services and undo decades of progress.
He stressed the urgent need for countries to act to mitigate the adverse effects of the ongoing financial crisis, increasing insecticide and drug resistance, climate change, and humanitarian crises.
He added: "These threats represent the most serious emergency facing malaria in 20 years and will lead to malaria upsurges and epidemics if not addressed.
As countries, we must ensure that we allocate resources in our domestic budgets towards eliminating malaria.
This will be an excellent return on investment, as we would see an additional 127 billion US dollars boost to African economies and an 81 billion US dollars boost to international trade if we eliminated malaria."
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), since 2015, the rate of progress in reducing both malaria cases and deaths has stalled in several countries.
Also read: Battle against malaria gets further boost
Africa is off track in meeting its bold and ambitious target to meet the malaria-related targets of the AU's Catalytic Framework to End AIDS, TB and Eliminate Malaria in Africa. Recognising the urgent need to lift Africa from this perfect storm, Health Ministers from African countries most burdened by malaria have pledged to substantially advance the fight and eliminate deaths caused by the disease.
Under the Yaoundé Declaration, African countries are committed to intensifying their efforts through strong leadership, substantial investment in healthcare infrastructure, and innovative strategies to directly tackle the disease head-on.
During his courtesy visit to the ALMA Secretariat headquarters in Dar es Salaam, President Embaló thanked President Samia Suluhu Hassan and the government of Tanzania on behalf of the African continent for hosting the ALMA secretariat. He highlighted Tanzania's significant contribution to the fight against malaria, one of the most formidable drivers of poverty on the continent.
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He emphasised the need for fostering shared responsibility, global solidarity and partnerships to ensure the upcoming Global Fund replenishment is a success and that the resources mobilised are targeted to the highest burden countries and regions and support those with the least ability to pay.
The ALMA Chair urged all countries to follow the example set by Guinea-Bissau and Tanzania in launching End Malaria Councils and Funds.
The councils, are coordinating a multisectoral, whole-of-society approach towards malaria elimination while also raising local resources, particularly from the private sector.
They have begun mobilising in-kind and financial resources from the private and public sectors, as well as from civil societies and the community, with over 57 million US dollars already mobilised.
At ALMA visit, Minister for Health Ms Ummy Mwalimu noted that Tanzania has made great strides in the fight against malaria by targeting the appropriate package of interventions to maximise impact, resulting in the reduction of malaria incidences from 50 per cent in the 1990s to 8.1 per cent in 2022
