Malaria is preventable and treatable. Yet it kills an estimated one million people every year—most of them children under age five and pregnant women. Malaria remains a major challenge in achieving several of the Millennium Development Goals in Africa. Key Statistics · Malaria kills nearly 3,000 children every day. · Ninety percent of malaria deaths occur in Africa. · In total, malaria is estimated to cost Africa about US$12 billion annually in lost GDP, slowing GDP growth by as much as 1.3 percent per year. Key Issues With Africa’s economic growth slowing, reducing the growth penalty imposed by malaria is more important than ever. As a result of the economic slowdown, governments may be forced to devote fewer resources to meeting health goals. New estimates for 2009 suggest that lower economic growth rates will trap 90 million more people in extreme poverty (GDP per capita of less than $1.25 a day) than was expected before the crisis. In addition, new research shows that lower growth rates will sharply slow progress in reducing infant mortality. Poverty and health are inextricably linked; solving Africa’s malaria problem can help keep millions of Africans from falling even further into poverty. In these difficult times, reliable financing and aid flows are crucial to ensuring that countries can massively scale up efforts to reach the 2010 targets1 of controlling malaria and eventually eliminating it. In this context, the World Bank must remain able to step in with flexible and predictable funding to fill finance gaps as it did in Ethiopia and Tanzania, and more recently in Nigeria. The Bank will also continue to work closely with its partners to harmonize donor efforts and support countries’ efforts to build capacity in procurement and supply chain, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. The Booster Program The Booster Program was launched in 2005 as a 10-year effort to reaffirm the Bank’s commitment to malaria control. The Booster Program substantially increases financial and technical support, ultimately accelerating design and implementation of malaria control programs, increasing coverage, and rapidly improving outcomes. In Phase I of the program, which ended in June 2008, the Bank committed US$455.2 million in International Development Association (IDA) support and trust funds. This reflects a nine-fold increase compared with what was spent in 2000 – 2005. The program is contributing to significant progress in Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Zambia. Eighteen countries have Booster projects, including a US$13.5 million Booster project for Mozambique approved April 16, 2009. Designed in collaboration with the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership and recipient countries, Phase II (July 1, 2008 – June 30, 2011) was officially launched in December 2008, with a target of US$1.125 billion in IDA support depending on country demand. Phase II will be more strategic, stress the Bank’s comparative advantages, and build on the successes and lessons learned in Phase I. It is built on five pillars, reflecting country-defined needs and the agreement of the Bank’s partners on how the Bank can capitalize on its comparative advantages in supporting malaria control and elimination. It places heavy emphasis on Nigeria and DRC, which together account for about 40 percent of the African malaria burden. In June 2009, the Board approved a US$100 million package for Nigeria. (Nigeria is already implementing a US $180 million Booster Phase I project.) Phase II also entails support for a major regional project to address surveillance, drug and insecticide resistance, cross-border vector control, and other issues essential to malaria’s elimination from the African continent. Donor Activities / Partnerships The Bank is playing a leadership role in several key areas of the RBM Partnership, which supports the massive scale-up effort to reach the 2010 targets. In this context, the Bank is responsible for leading donor harmonization efforts in support of national malaria programs in Nigeria and DRC. In addition, the Bank leads the technical work on Economics & Finance taskforces of the Malaria Elimination Group. It also provides strong technical support to and is a member of the malaria Affordable Medicines Facility (AMFm) Task Force, the M&E Reference Group, the Harmonization Working Group, the LLIN Working Group, the RBM Financing Task Force and the Supply Chain Task Force, and participates in strategic decision making on malaria commodities. Finally, the Bank engages new partners such as the private sector (ExxonMobil), foundations, and the Russian Federation to finance malaria control activities and promote the dialogue to bring on board future partners. Next Steps Sufficient IDA 15 resources for Phase II implementation will be critical, given the expectations of partners and countries, for the Bank to continue to play a leadership role in the malaria fight. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org/afr/malaria. Media Contact: Herbert Boh,hboh@worldbank.org Updated September 2009 |
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