Roll Back Malaria

AFRICAN SUMMIT ON ROLL BACK MALARIA 24-25 APRIL 2000 NICON HILTON HOTEL ABUJA NIGERIA THE MALARIA SCOURGE • Malaria accounts for about 10% of Africa’s disease burden and more than one million deaths every year. • A child dies every 30seconds as a result of malaria. The majority who die are children of Africa. • Malaria prevents children from attending school and retards children’s learning. • Women are four times as likely to suffer from malaria during pregnancy than at any other time resulting in low-birth babies, miscarriages and still-births. BURDEN OF MALARIA ON PRODUCTIVITY •

Malaria worsens the poverty of African nations: - It prevents adults from working; malaria patients can be ill for 5 to 20 days at a time. - Families spend an average of one-quarter of their income on malaria treatment.

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The cost of malaria control and treatment drains African nations south of the Sahara spent over US $2 billion on malaria control.

LEADERSHIP INITIATIVES • • • •

In June 1997 African Heads of State signed the Harare Declaration on Malaria. In 1998 the African initiative on Malaria was endorsed by the African Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank, UNICEF, UNDP and the World Bank launched the Roll Back Malaria Initiative. Since 1998, UNICEF has promoted the use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) in Nigeria. Over 32,000 ITNs have been supplied to 10,664 households. To further concretize these achievements, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria initiated the African Summit on Roll Back Malaria to be held in Abuja, Nigeria from 24-25 April 2000.

WHAT IS ROLL BACK MALARIA? The Roll Back Malaria partnership is a new social movement that aims at building and strengthening the capacity of health services to help communities tackle the malaria problems. It focuses special attention on women and children in poor communities. RBM is predicated on the following principles: • People at risk can prevent malaria, if they sleep under insecticide treated mosquito nets. • Pregnant women can take medicines to prevent and treat malaria.

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People can treat and cure malaria with a wide variety of effective medicines if they seek and receive treatment early. Families and communities can be empowered to predict, prevent and contain malaria epidemics.

KEY ELEMENTS OF RBM • Low cost insecticide treated bednets. • Genuine, effective and affordable medicines. • Timely and accurate information at household and community levels. THE NEW COMMITMENT Africans Heads of State are showing a new commitment to eradicate malaria from the continent: through their ready acceptance and active participation in the Summit. This new commitment, however, will be more beneficial if it is matched with: • A rededication to the principles and targets of the Harare Declaration. • Provision of human and capital resources for country level actions. • Implementation of strategies and actions agreed upon at the Summit. • Networking with NGOs towards the realization of stated targets. • Creation of an enabling environment that will permit increased participation of international partners. THE GOAL BY the year 2000: • At least 60% of those suffering from malaria should have prompt access to affordable and appropriate treatment. • At least 60% of those at risk of malaria, particularly pregnant women, should benefit from the most suitable combination of personal and community protective measures. • At least 60% of all pregnant women who are at risk of malaria, especially those in their first pregnancies, should have access to effective treatment. SUMMIT PARTNERS • Federal Republic of Nigeria. • African Heads of State. • Heads of 10 international and bilateral agencies. • United Nations agencies particularly WHO, UNICEF, UNDP and the World Bank. • Development and Health Ministers of Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).