President Bush's Malaria Initiative
The Angolan people and their Government are very quickly recovering from the country's long civil war and working hard to build the national capacity essential to broad-based economic growth and participatory democracy. Recognizing the positive change that is taking place, the United States Agency for International Development has shifted the focus of its programs away from humanitarian assistance and towards a collaborative assistance relationship that seeks to:
- reinforce Angolan efforts to improve people's lives through increased economic opportunity and improved social service delivery
- help Angolans make the systemic reforms that will lock Angola onto a path of stability and wide-spread prosperity
On June 30, 2005, President George W. Bush launched an initiative to reduce the number of children dying of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. Angola was chosen as one of the first three countries to participate in the initiative. The President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) will support USAID/Angola's objective to reinforce Angolan efforts to improve (and, in this case, also save) people's lives through better service delivery. Specifically, we seek to help reduce malaria deaths in Angola by 50 percent after three full years of implementation.
The Context for the Program
Angola has one of the highest mortality rates in the world for children under the age of five. Maternal mortality rates are similarly high. The biggest cause for these discouraging rates is malaria. For children under five, it accounts for an estimated 35 percent of mortality and 60 percent of hospital visits. It accounts for an estimated 25 percent of maternal mortality.
Malaria is a disease we can beat. PMI seeks to provide the resources and know-how to do that. It aims to help host countries reach 85 percent of high risk populations with proven and effective malaria prevention and treatment interventions and, by doing so, reduce malaria deaths by 50 percent after three years of implementation. PMI will also build host country capability to continue to reduce the incidence of the disease in the years beyond the initial three year period. PMI will support.
- Prevention, by assisting with the purchase and distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying.
- Treatment, by assisting with improved case management and the introduction and expanded use of new Artemisinian-based combination therapies (ACTs).
- Reduction in the Risk of Malaria During Pregnancy, by facilitating the adoption of strategies to prevent and treat malaria during pregnancy including intermittent preventative treatment, a highly effective approach that integrates malaria treatment for the pregnant mother into routine antenatal care.
- Epidemiologic Research, to better understand transmission patterns.
- Capacity Building, to assist the National Malaria Control Board of the Ministry to Health to achieve its full potential in bringing Angola's malaria problem under control.
The Importance of Partners
The PMI recognizes the strength of partnerships in fighting malaria. In March of 2006, under the strong leadership of Angola's Ministry of Health, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Ministry, the United States Government, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and Esso Angola, pronouncing the signatories' common goal of reducing illness and deaths due to malaria and committing the signatories to share and harmonize experiences, methods, and resources to strengthen and extend malaria prevention and control measures throughout Angola.
Other important players with whom the United States Government and the partners above will cooperate in fighting malaria in Angola include the Global Fund for Fighting HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis and the Governments of Japan, Norway, Canada, and United Kingdom.
Progress Thus Far
Angola has become an early PMI success story. Less than one year into implementation, PMI has supported spraying of over 100,000 houses with insecticide, protecting about 550,000 people from malaria in the provinces of Huíla and Cunene.
Progress has also been made in planning for the distribution of Coartem, an anti-malaria drug that is now being introduced in Angola; as well as for the improvement of laboratories for the diagnosis of malaria.
Currently, almost 800,000 Long-Lasting Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets are being given away free to all children under 5 years of age in the seven provinces most effected by malaria in conjunction with the Ministry of Health's Viva a Vida com Saúde campaign. Those seven provinces are: Cabinda, Luanda Norte, Luanda Sul, Malange, Moxico, Uíge, and Zaire. 420,000 of the nets were donated by PMI, in partnership with ExxonMobil.
As we move into year two of implementation, we feel well on our way of achieving the PMI target of reducing malaria mortality by 50 percent at the end of three years of implementation, and helping thousands of Angolans achieve healthy, happier futures for themselves, their families and their country.
USAID's Global Development Alliance: A New Way of Doing Business
The Global Development Alliance - USAID's new way of doing business - is based on the recognition that significant changes in the environment of economic development assistance are occurring. No longer are traditional donor governments and multilateral development banks the only providers of assistance. Rather, over the past 20 years, there has been a growing number of new actors on the scene: foundations, corporations, and even individuals. Under its Global Development Alliance model, USAID seeks to facilitate linkages between its own programs and the programs of these new and, increasingly important, new actors, in order to strengthen the overall effectiveness of development efforts.
Learn more about the Global Development Alliance model. Browse our website. You can find it at www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_partnerships/gda/.
