Rolling Back Malaria

Dec 17th, 2009 5:05 PM UTC
By Kara Arsenault

Here’s a cross-post from our partners at UNICEF

At a New York City reception last week, UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman and key members of the Roll Back Malaria team joined together to applaud a new UN General Assembly resolution on the killer disease.

Roll Back Malaria is a worldwide public-private partnership created in 1998 by the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Development Programme, UNICEF and the World Bank.

Adopted by consensus last Monday, December 7, the UN resolution urges the international community—together with UN agencies, the public and private sectors, and foundations—to support implementation of Roll Back Malaria’s Global Malaria Action Plan. It calls on donors to step up funding for anti-malaria efforts and for affected countries to strengthen their national policies.

“In adopting this resolution, Member States, including donors and endemic countries, have reaffirmed their commitment to combat malaria,” said Hervé Verhoosel, the External Relations Manager for Roll Back Malaria in New York. “Malaria kills about 900,000 people a year, but most of those deaths could be avoided with the right mix of prevention and treatment.”

At the event, Verhoosel also introduced United Against Malaria, a campaign to engage and mobilize football fans around the world. The 2010 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in South Africa, provides an opportunity to build support for the 2010 target of universal access to mosquito nets and malaria treatment in Africa—a crucial first step toward the Millennium Development Goal of reducing malaria deaths to near zero by 2015.

“United Against Malaria aims to reach out to children in a language they will understand: sport. If a football player says to sleep under a bed net, the chances are greater that a child will do so,” said Verhoosel.

“Time and again we hear that basic health is essential to economic prosperity,” said UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha Rose Migiro. “Yet countless poor people continue to suffer and die from diseases that can be prevented or treated. Malaria is a case in point. Together, we can help save lives in every endemic country and community. We have momentum, let’s keep going forward.”

-Amy Bennett, Assignment Editor, UNICEF

TAGS: Diseases, Malaria