Speeches
Remarks by the US Ambassador to Angola, Cynthia Efird, at the signing ceremony for Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) related to the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI)
Your excellency Honorable Dr. Sebastiao Veloso, Minister of Health; Honorable Vice Minister Jose Van Dunem, Honorable Vice Minister Dra. Natalia Do Espirito Santo, Honorable Dr. Filomeno Fortes, Director of the National Malaria Control Program, Dra. Fatoumata Diallo, Representative of WHO, Sr. Akhil Iyer, Officer in Charge UNICEF, Mr. Terry McPhail, Managing Director, Esso of Angola; Honored Guests of the Country Coordinating Mechanism, the Press, Colleagues:
President Bush challenged the world in June 2005 to dramatically reduce the burden of malaria as a major killer of children in sub-Saharan Africa, and pledged to increase funding of malaria prevention and treatment by more than $1 billion over five years. The goal of the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) in Angola is to reduce malaria deaths by 50 percent after three years of full implementation.
Angola was selected as one of the first group of countries to receive PMI assistance, along with Tanzania and Uganda. This select group of pioneers will probably increase to seven countries next year, and more in 2008.
Worldwide, by 2008, the United States will provide an additional $300 million per year for malaria prevention and treatment. The additional funding provided by the United States will benefit up to 130 million people in some of the most affected African countries.
The PMI started this year with $7.5 million allocated to Angola. We hope and expect that this amount will in fact increase sharply over the next two years, and see continued support for a full five years of support to Angola.
Malaria is a major health problem in Angola with approximately 3 million cases a year, accounting for an estimated 35% of the overall mortality in children under five, 25% of maternal mortality and 60% of hospital admissions for children under five.
The cost of malaria is not only felt in the lives of those killed by the disease. Malaria prevents people from working and can have detrimental effects on the productivity of a population, and thus the country's GDP, which is acutely felt in a recovering and developing country such as Angola.
PMI in Angola will provide effective Artemesinin based Combination Therapy (ACT) drugs to treat malaria, Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets (ITNs) to protect pregnant women and young children, help increase access to malaria prophylaxis for pregnant women, improved diagnosis, Indoor Residual Spraying to control mosquitoes and technical support to build capacity in the National Malaria Control Programme.
Already the PMI has carried out an IRS campaign in the epidemic prone southern provinces of Huila and Cunene. It has also helped WHO start up spraying in Namibe Province, lending insecticide and important support in educational materials. The spraying will finish by tomorrow Friday, and we will begin planning for next season. As part of PMI, the US Government will also support the mass distribution of we hope up to 850,000 ITNs in conjunction with the MINSA measles vaccination campaign. And with a joint plan for distribution and management of combination therapy ACT drugs, we will provide this year $860,000 to WHO to purchase for Angola more drugs to complement the Global Fund purchase.
PMI implementation in Angola is supported by an important group of partners represented here today, who we acknowledge and salute. These include ExxonMobil, UNICEF and WHO.
The ExxonMobil Foundation has directly supported all of us in this effort. USAID received a gift of $1 Million from ExxonMobil to support the health education and communication messages about malaria, systems strengthening and pharmaceutical logistics and monitoring and evaluation. UNICEF and the UN system have received funding from ExxonMobil for the purchase of nets. WHO has received support for a logistics advisor from ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil has also provided support on improving the care of pregnant women through the USAID funded project JHPIEGO. All of this of course has resounded to the benefit of the National Malaria Control Program of the Ministry of Health. We believe this has been a remarkable public-private partnership growing out of ExxonMobil's Africa Health Initiative, and we welcome the continuing and future support.
I'm honored to be able to sign today this Memorandum of Understanding for our assistance to Angola. I know the Government of Angola has made a firm commitment to this program, and we and our partners stand with Angola to make sure we truly work for results and profound impact on the health and wellbeing of the Angolan people.
