Ban Ki-moon: Fighting malaria is good investment

Launching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) showed that fighting malaria is a good investment to saves lives and develop economy, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Thursday. Funding for malaria control project reached USD 2.5 billion in 2012 which is an impressive number, he said, however, but it is only half of the USD 5 billion needed, he noted in a breakfast event hosted by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM) at the sidelines of the 4th EU-Africa summit in the Belgian capital Brussels. The UN chief noted that large scale malaria interventions in recent years saved 3.3 million lives, 90 percent of them were children. Chairperson of the African Union Commission Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and several African leaders addressed the event, calling for health to remain prominent on the development agenda to meet the 2015 deadline of the (MDGs) and for the foreseeable future. "Africa stands at a major crossroads as we leave behind death and despair and rally ourselves and our resources to improve the quality of lives for our communities." said Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. "We must take up the unfinished business of ridding Africa of malaria, HIV and TB. If we redouble our efforts to the end of 2015 and commit to a shared post-2015 agenda, we will succeed" she added. President of Ghana John Dramani Mahama on his part said "we need to dedicate more strategic funding towards the overall health of our people, and specifically towards the elimination of malaria". Meanwhile, President of Mozambique Armando Guebuza said that "Africa is the fastest developing continent in the world today", adding that "This is because we as African leaders, together with our people and development partners, are committed to turning the tables on scourges like malaria". "Time and time again, malaria has proven to be one of the most cost-effective global health investments." said Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership Dr. Fatoumata Nafo-Traore. "When we invest in health, we not only save lives, we enhance quality of life for entire communities" she added. RBM Representative at the United Nations Herve Verhoosel, told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) last week that "indirectly this high level event (in Brussels) is organized thanks to the financial support that HH the Emir of Kuwait and the Kuwait Fund have given for the external relations activities of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership".