New Delhi: In the culmination of a week of focus on a disease at a crossroads, the 53 leaders of Commonwealth nations committed to halve the burden of malaria across the Commonwealth within five years.
Backed by financial, political and scientific commitments worth over USD 4.1 billion made at the Malaria Summit London 2018, this commitment injects renewed energy to help put the world on track towards beating the disease.
Seventy days ago, organisations from around the world joined to launch the Malaria Must Die campaign, calling upon the Commonwealth to step up and take bold political action in the fight against the world’s oldest and deadliest disease. With reductions in cases and deaths stalling, the choice put to leaders was simple: make new commitments toward fighting malaria or go backwards and risk many more lives lost.
The response from Commonwealth leaders, the private sector, philanthropists and the development community has been outstanding. The global commitments made this week, alongside the promise to halve malaria cases and deaths across the Commonwealth within five years will help prevent over 350 million cases and save 650,000 lives. Now the hard work must continue to make good on this promise made to the millions of people at risk of malaria in Commonwealth countries.
This Commonwealth commitment demonstrates the importance of collective leadership and is a benchmark for renewed global attention and action, against malaria. This is a disease that has no borders and our approach to ending malaria cannot either.
We are Ready to Beat Malaria and look forward to working with the nations of the Commonwealth and their partners to ensure these game-changing commitments are delivered. (NewsVoir)