In 1998, when malaria claimed an estimated
one million lives every year and impacted hundreds of millions of people around
the world, the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership was founded with the goal of
halving the disease’s burden — a goal that we will surpass in 2015. The
fight against malaria has since become one of the greatest success stories
in global health and development: Over six million malaria-related deaths have
been averted since 2000, 97% of which would have claimed the lives of children
under five years of age.
Created
jointly by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and the World Health Organization
(WHO), RBM has fostered strong multi-sectoral collaboration and contributed to
major accomplishments in malaria-related advocacy, resource mobilization,
consensus building and the implementation of prevention and control
interventions.
Since
RBM’s inception, global investments in the fight against malaria have surged
2000%: from $130 million to $2.7 billion annually. This increase has fuelled an
unprecedented scale-up in the delivery of multiple effective interventions
against the disease, including long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs),
artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs),
and indoor residual spraying. During that time and through the work and
contributions of countries and many stakeholders, malaria-related mortality has
decreased by 58% since 2000, and the global Millennium Development Goal (MDG)
target for malaria has been achieved or surpassed. More than 100 countries are
already free from malaria, and at least 55 countries are on track to reduce
malaria incidence rates by 75% by the end of 2015.
However,
the battle is far from won – the world still sees nearly 200 million cases of
malaria every year. As the MDG era comes to a close and the world adopts an
ambitious set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), malaria must remain high
on political, social and financing platforms.
WHO
and RBM have framed an ambitious agenda for the next 15 years through the WHO Global
Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030 and RBM’s parallel advocacy plan, Action
and Investment to Defeat Malaria (AIM) 2016–2030. These documents define
the steps required to achieve a further 90% reduction in global malaria burden
by 2030, as well as accelerating national and regional elimination efforts.
Achieving
the new malaria goals and ensuring full-scale implementation of integrated
interventions requires a more than two-fold increase in malaria funding by
2020, to $6.5 billion per year, underscoring the need for greater operational
coordination and inter-sectoral collaboration. In parallel, a refreshed
Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (malERA) will provide a set of research and development
priorities that identify knowledge gaps and tools needed for the worldwide
eradication of malaria.
As
the new SDG era beckons and the malaria response advances, the RBM Partnership
must also continue to evolve. A new partnership structure was approved by
the RBM Board at its 28th meeting in May 2015, designed to strengthen the
global malaria community's ability to realise a highly-integrated political,
operational, and financial response, and accelerate coordinated action against
malaria during a time of shifting development priorities, biological threats
and financial austerity.
A
Transition Oversight Committee, led by Dr. David Parirenyatwa, Minister of
Health, Zimbabwe and Admiral Tim Ziemer, U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator, President’s
Malaria Initiative (PMI), with the support of Transition Manager Kevin Starace,
a former Vice Chair of the RBM Partnership, will implement the new architecture
for the partnership and continue to advance the priorities of countries and
communities at risk of malaria. Key activities of the current RBM
Secretariat — headquartered in Geneva, with staff in New York and sub-Regional
networks based in Gaborone and Dakar — will transition to a new structure
recommended by this Board-appointed committee. The Transition
Oversight Committee will institute regular communications to keep all partners
informed as the changes progress.
“RBM
has stood at the forefront of this new era of development, ready and willing to
examine future challenges and opportunities and adapt our way of working to
ensure that malaria remains a health and development priority, and that
together we are able to continue to save valuable lives and unlock the economic
potential of the most vulnerable communities around the world,” said RBM
Executive Director Dr. Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré. " The Global Technical
Strategy for malaria and Action and Investment to defeat Malaria — AIM
2016-2030 — will help to secure the resources and global
collaboration required to achieve our shared vision of a malaria-free world.”
"The
impact of the RBM Partnership is clear. We have cut malaria deaths in half,
which seemed unattainable at the outset of the MDG era -- yet we know these
gains are fragile and can be reversed in one rainy season if we allow malaria
interventions to lapse," said Dr. Victor Makwenge Kaput, Chairman of the
RBM Board, Parliamentarian and former Minister of Health of the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
"As
the world adopts new global goals for sustainable development, we are adapting
RBM partnership mechanisms to achieve our ambitious mandate to end
malaria. We do so with deep appreciation of the current RBM
Partnership Secretariat who have enabled us to envision a world free of malaria
by their dedicated support."
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