Roll Back Malaria, the global partnership to fight malaria, launched a campaign to improve the quality of proposals from sub-Saharan African countries to the Global Fund.
In 2006, just over one-quarter of all malaria control proposals submitted to the Global Fund from sub-Saharan African countries were considered worthy of financing by the Technical Review Panel, an independent expert panel assembled to assess the proposals.
The newly formed RBM Harmonization Working Group, consisting of representatives from UN agencies, donors, civil society, foundations, and African countries, is leading the campaign, which began with training workshops in Nairobi, Kenya and Douala, Cameroon to help applicant countries with the proposal writing process. Countries will also be supported with proposal drafting, ?mock? review panels, and further review by leading public health experts prior to the July 4, 2007 submission deadline.
?Increased financial resources are clearly required for African Countries from the Global Fund, World Bank, US Government, and other partners to increase the intensity of malaria control efforts in Africa,? said Professor Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Executive Director of the RBM Partnership at the launch of the Douala workshop. ?It is vital that countries do not miss the opportunity provided by the Global Fund?s call for proposals.”
Chaired jointly by the World Bank and UNICEF, the Harmonization Working Group, was formed to focus exclusively on supporting and accelerating malaria control implementation at the country-level. In addition to the campaign to improve Global Fund application success, the Working Group is developing an early warning system to alert the malaria community when countries face challenges implementing their malaria control scale-up.
Over 90% of the world?s malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, where a child dies every 30 seconds of the mosquito-borne disease. With little over 3 years remaining to meet ambitious malaria control targets, an unprecedented number of African countries have embarked on aggressive implementation programs.