The White House Summit on Malaria

November 14, 2006 - The President and Mrs. Bush will host the White House Summit on Malaria on December 14, 2006, in Washington, D.C., to discuss malaria in Africa and to highlight measures for combating this preventable disease. The Office of the Coordinator for the President’s Malaria Initiative at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), under the leadership of ADM Tim Ziemer (U.S. Navy, RET), and the Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the U.S. State Department, will partner in presenting this summit.

The summit will bring together international academic experts, representatives of multilateral institutions, including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (Global Fund); leaders from corporations and non-profit foundations, African civic leaders, and delegates from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and faith-based and service organizations to discuss and highlight measures for controlling malaria on the African continent.

The goal is to jump-start an ambitious public-private effort to control malaria in Africa, and to send a message that all groups represented in the summit need to join together to save lives.

In Africa, malaria kills 3,000 children every day, and claims almost a million lives a year on that continent. While malaria once afflicted many Americans, today it is virtually unheard of in the United States, although it endangers the military and U.S. citizens in other parts of the world. The challenge now is to make sure the best medical and prevention strategies are available to people still at risk of malaria.

In June 2005, President Bush announced the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), a five-year, $1.2 billion program that challenges the private sector and other governmental donors to join the U.S. government in reducing malaria 50 percent in 15 of the hardest-hit countries in Africa. Already, through partnerships that are working in the first three focus countries (Tanzania, Angola and Uganda), aid from the American people has reached about six million Africans.

A year later, in June 2006, Mrs. Laura Bush announced that the United States will partner with four more focus countries (Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Senegal) to provide long-lasting treated mosquito nets, anti-malarial drugs, and assistance for mosquito-spraying programs.

The summit will highlight organizations at work in the fight against malaria in Africa, including Malaria No More, which is helping to mobilize new private sector support for the campaign.

Malaria No More is a non-profit organization created in 2006 by leading non-governmental entities to give private and non-profit organizations and individuals the opportunity to support a comprehensive approach to controlling malaria, and to help coordinate those efforts with governments and the multilateral organizations at the forefront of the fight. Malaria No More is mobilizing corporations and foundations; churches, synagogues and mosques; schools and athletic teams; and communities and individuals.

For more information:

• The President's Malaria Initiative (White House)

Last revised: September 27, 2007