African Leader’s Malaria Alliance
The African Leader’s Malaria Alliance (ALMA) welcomes a new Chair, His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya. President Kenyatta is ALMA’s seventh chair and will serve for a two-year term, from February 2020 to February 2022. He takes over from His Majesty King Mswati III, of the Kingdom of Eswatini.
His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta had positive words as he took his new role: “I am honored to take over this role as ALMA Chair. Significant gains have been made in the battle against malaria and progress needs to be accelerated. As we enter the decade to end malaria, I am committed to ensuring that we accelerate progress and end this ancient scourge! At the heart of Africa’s Agenda 2063: the Africa We Want, is improved health outcomes so that our people and economies continue to grow.”
Her Excellency Mrs. Amira El-Fadil, Commissioner for Social Affairs for the African Union Commission, as well as Dr. Abdourahmane Diallo, CEO of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, both welcomed the new Chair. Dr. Abdourahmane Diallo said: “Leadership by African Heads of State is paramount if we are to reach the ambitious goal of a malaria-free Africa within a generation, and ALMA continues to be a key strategic partner of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria. We look forward to continuing this collaboration and supporting His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta’s work to end malaria in Kenya and across the continent.”
BAAM is looking forward to keeping working with ALMA in 2020 and gives a warm welcome to His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya in his new role.
Asia Pacific Leader’s Malaria Alliance
M2030, an initiative by the Asia Pacific Leader’s Malaria Alliance (APLMA) and a group of leading businesses in Asia that use their brands to raise awareness and funds to fight malaria in the region, was launched in Japan on 18 December 2019. The launch took place around the third and latest roundtable “ZERO Malaria: What Can We Do from Japan?”, co-organized by Malaria No More Japan as part of their ZERO Malaria 2030 Campaign and the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA). The launch of M2030 Japan was led by M2030 partners Sumitomo Chemical, Dentsu, and Sompo Insurance Indonesia. Dr. Keizo Takemi, member of the Japanese House of Councillors and WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Universal Health Coverage, opened the event with a keynote speech highlighting the continuous need for political commitment and leadership, the need for Japanese companies to continue to innovate by improving on current technologies for malaria diagnosis, prevention, and treatment, and the need to increase access to malaria testing and treatment and of securing domestic funding to fight malaria.
Patrik Silborn, Head of External Relations at APLMA, announced the launch of M2030 Japan, and described how companies in Japan and throughout Asia can demonstrate private sector leadership for malaria elimination by joining the M2030 movement.
Ray Nishimoto, Executive Vice President of Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd, and Board Member of Malaria No More Japan as well as a member of the M2030 Champions Council, spoke about how Sumitomo Chemical continues to innovate to address challenges in malaria elimination. He said, "Experience shows there's no 'silver bullet' to end malaria. We need a combination of innovations to fight the disease from every direction."
Koji Kinoshita, Director of CSR at Dentsu, spoke about Dentsu’s role in raising awareness of the fight against malaria among those outside of the malaria community. He explained his company's role in the effort by stating, Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) is a global media, digital marketing and communications network and a pioneering partner of M2030 “To eliminate malaria by 2030, we need to engage the general public. Advertising agencies like Dentsu can help with this."
Yuta Iboshi, Senior Deputy Manager for CSR at Sompo Holdings, highlighted how their subsidiary Sompo Insurance Indonesia is helping to protect people against malaria through the marketing of insurance for malaria and other tropical diseases. This insurance increases access to malaria treatment, which plays a key role in elimination. Additionally, Sompo Insurance Indonesia is a new M2030 partner, and is in the process of developing new campaigns for consumers and business clients to raise awareness and funds for malaria elimination in Indonesia.The event concluded with a roundtable discussion, where the following stakeholders were present: Dr. Shigeyuki Kano, Director of the Department of Tropical Medicine and Malaria Research Institute at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine; Dr. Ken Shibusawa, CEO Shibusawa and Company, Inc.; Catherine Ohura, CEO & Executive Director of Global Health Innovative Technology Fund; Dr. Hiroyuki Noda, Councilor, Office for Pandemic Influenza and New Infectious Diseases & Coordination Office of Measures on Emerging Infectious Disease, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan.
The President’s Malaria Initiative
Dr. Ken Staley, Global Malaria Coordinator of the United States President’s Malaria Initiative, delivered a positive message as we entered in the first quarter of 2020. In particular, he welcomed a successful Global Fund replenishment and a $15 million funding increase for 2020 from the Congress and American taxpayers for the PMI to keep helping to mitigate the threat of insecticide resistance.
2020 will also mark the 15th anniversary of the President’s Malaria Initiative. Dr. Ken Staley shared his vision for the year ahead, including leveraging the power of data to better respond to on-the-ground conditions and more precisely target interventions, continuing to prioritize reaching pregnant women and young children, expanding community health worker training and community-based interventions to reach more affected people, intensifying efforts to combat insecticide resistance and aiming for malaria elimination within the next 5 to 10 years in the Greater Mekong Subregion to further reduce the spread of antimalarial drug resistance.
The Global Fund to Fight HIV, TB, and Malaria
In December 2019, the Global Fund revealed the allocations for countries and regional grants across the world for its 2020-2022 cycle—allocations can be found here. The allocations include US$12.71 billion for country allocations and US$890 million for catalytic investments for the period beginning 1 January 2020 – 23% more than for the previous three-year period. Countries in Africa are receiving around US$2 billion more than in the previous period, and countries in West & Central Africa have the biggest increase – US$780 million. Worldwide, there are 32 countries with an increase of 40% or higher. Asia and the Pacific has been allocated more than US$ 500M for malaria programs.