Photo Courtesy of ajagendorf25.
On 23 September, during the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York City, African Heads of States launched the African Leadership Malaria Alliance (ALMA). According to the UN, ALMA is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the distribution of over 240 million bed nets throughout Africa’s malaria-endemic regions by the end of 2010, with the ultimate goal of putting an end to unnecessary malaria deaths by 2015. To accomplish these goals, African leaders will work to procure and distribute malaria control measures and ensure their proper utilization.
Both UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and WHO Director-General Margaret Chan have emphasized that the formation of this alliance clearly demonstrates African leaders’ political commitment to malaria eradication and willingness to become actively engaged in this critical public health battle. Such commitment, in Chan’s words, “is essential not only to reach the 2010 target of universal coverage with malaria control interventions, but also to sustain these gains and ultimately achieve the Millennium Development Goals.”
To find out more information about ALMA, visit the alliance’s website at: http://www.alma2015.org/.
