Business Leaders Launch $100M Campaign for Malaria Efforts in Africa
Business leaders on Saturday during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, launched the Malaria Capital Campaign, a $100 million fundraising effort to address malaria in Africa, the AP/Boston Globe reports (AP/Boston Globe, 1/31). The campaign -- launched by Standard Charter Bank, ExxonMobil and News Corporation -- aims to prevent about one million malaria deaths annually by distributing hundreds of millions of insecticide-treated nets and malaria diagnostic kits by 2010.
According to Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil chair and CEO, the campaign already has raised $40 million. Tillerson said that despite the economic downturn, he is confident the campaign will raise the remaining funds if the initiative "demonstrate[s] to donors that their investment for eradication has a return." Rajat Gupta -- chair of the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria -- added that he believes it is possible to achieve universal access to ITNs, malaria drugs and indoor insecticide spraying by 2010. "The resources to attack this problem, to eliminate malaria deaths, [are] there," Gupta said. According to Scott Case, a campaigner for the project, 300 million ITNs are needed in sub-Saharan Africa, where 600 million people are at risk of malaria (AFP/Google.com, 1/31).
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Calls for Sustained Funding for HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria
In related news, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the forum called for industrialized nations to sustain funding commitments to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals targets, including those aimed at curbing HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, VOA News reports. Ban spoke at a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
According to Ban, the global health community is "close to eliminating diseases such as polio and containing malaria" and has "made tremendous strides in fighting HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis." However, the world in 2009 faces multiple challenges -- including economic, food and fuel crises -- Ban said, adding that it is especially important for industrialized countries to sustain their funding commitments to help developing countries overcome such obstacles. "Now, more than ever, the world's poor need your help," he said, adding that governments should "put something aside for your less fortunate neighbors" and "not overlook them." In addition, Ban urged donor nations to make the MDGs "part of those investment and spending plans" (Schlein, VOA News, 1/30).
