Malaria Summit was held in London alongside the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
- The summit was conducted to make game-changing commitments towards beating malaria.
- It was organized by the non-profit organization ‘Malaria No More’ in collaboration with ‘Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’.
- The summit is supported by the British Prime Minister Theresa May.
- High-level political commitment to beat malaria were made by the heads of government and Ministers from 19 Commonwealth countries.
Highlights
- The summit coincided with Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London.
- CHOGM is a biennial convening of 53 Commonwealth leaders. These countries are disproportionately affected by malaria.
- The summit aimed to highlight the stalled progress in fighting the disease.
- The meeting was attended by a range of heads of state as well as the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York and Bill Gates.
- A total of £2.9bn was pledged to fight the disease which included £1.45bn from countries affected by malaria, £700m from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and £160m from the UK government. Commonwealth leaders also promised to halve the impact of malaria within five years, preventing 350m cases of the disease and saving 650,000 lives.
- In the summit, the malaria-risk countries expressed their commitment to beat the disease worldwide.
- The summit expected the world leaders to renew their financial and political commitments to continue the fight against malaria, which is showing signs of fighting back. Malaria cases rose to 216 million globally in 2016, five million more than a year ago.
- India did not attend the Malaria Summit. There was no Indian representative to participate in the Summit.
- India is expected to share its strategy to eliminate malaria by 2030.
- India has the third largest malaria cases in the world after countries like Congo and Nigeria.
Specific commitments feature at the summit were-
- High level political commitment towards malaria elimination
- The significant increase in investment from malaria-endemic countries to leverage and complement donor funding
- New innovative tools to overcome the growing threat of resistance.
- Improved methods to track the disease to enable more effective and efficient intervention and to prevent resurgence
