Malaria Treatment & Prevention
African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) Launch September 2009
ALMA was launched in September 2009. Below is the ALMA Creation Statement.
1. We African Heads of State and Government represented here create the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) to launch a coordinated and effective response to the scourge of malaria. We need to meet our goals of providing universal prevention and treatment coverage by the end of 2010 and eliminating preventable deaths by 2015.
2. We recognize the challenges of malaria, a disease that kills nearly one million Africans every year and affects over 200 million more, most of whom are pregnant women and children under 5 years of age. Malaria also costs Africa at least $12 billion dollars annually in lost development and opportunity.
3. We will take ownership of national activities and guide interventions to overcome challenges that require our national and collective action. We will coordinate efforts and focus on joint actions to fight malaria, assist in the delivery of tools to fight malaria and education on how to properly use those tools, identify gaps and urgently address them, and work in concert with public, private and non-governmental organizations. Through working together, we can realize economies of scale and improve the efficiency of malaria control efforts, to the benefit of all our people.
4. We are encouraged with the great strides that have been made in recent years to battle malaria in Africa, a key component of the Millennium Development Goals. This progress is the result of our tireless work, evidenced by the implementation of the Abuja Declaration. We are thankful for the commitment and support from governmental, multilateral and bilateral entities, private and non-governmental organizations.
5. We are thus establishing ALMA to complement our efforts to meet our malaria targets in our respective national programmes in line with the internationally agreed goals including the Millennium Development Goals. The objectives of ALMA will therefore be to:-
• Keep malaria high on the political and policy agenda at global, national and local levels;
• Provide a forum for high level advocacy for the attainment of 2010 and 2015 malaria targets including the funding needs;
• Provide a forum to review progress and address challenges being faced in meeting the malaria targets;
• Maintain the focus and collective attention on malaria within the International Community, the United Nations and regional organizations;
• Furnish a platform for collective advocacy with multilateral organizations on such policy priorities as the timely release of donor funds and the efficient implementation of the global strategy essential for malaria awareness, acquisition and dispensing malaria control assets;
• Provide a forum for sharing of information and good practices on combating malaria
ALMA will thus open the consideration of African-owned and African-based solutions to malaria-specific and wider public health and development challenges.
6. We acknowledge that our responsibility as leaders is to protect our people and we will work together to do so. Together, we will succeed in combating Malaria.
Countries adopting the Statement:
1. Comoros
2. Ethiopia
3. Ghana
4. Kenya
5. Mauritius
6. Rwanda
7. Tanzania
8. Sao Tome and Principe
9. Sierra Leone
10. Uganda
11. Zimbabwe
12. Zambia
13. Senegal
14. Benin
15. Congo
16. Egypt
17. Malawi
18. South Africa
19. Burkina Faso
20. Democratic Republic of Congo
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