World leaders gathered attending an anti-poverty summit here on Thursday pledged to commit nearly three billions dollars for an ambitious global plan to drastically cut malaria deaths around the world.
The funding, which include 1.1 billion dollars from the World Bank, will be used to support rapid implementation of the first ever Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP).
World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in a statement that the extra money would help "sharply reduce the numbers of malaria-related deaths and illness" in the next three years.
According to GMAPs projections, more than 4.2 million lives can be saved between 2008 and 2015, if its plan is put into action, and the foundation can be laid for a longer-term effort to eradicate the disease.
Malaria affects half of the worlds population -- 3.3 billion people in 109 countries -- and causes nearly 1 million deaths per year, according to UN officials.
In addition to the World Bank commitment, the Global Fund to Fights AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it was commiting 1.62 billion dollars over two years in new grants for malaria submitted to its board for approval in Novemer, including plans for distributing 100 million additional bed nets.
Billionaire and Microsoft Founder Bill Gates said his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would provide 168.7 million dollars to fund a Malaria Vaccine Initiative for research on a new generation of malaria vaccines.
Britain's Department for International Development pledged 40 million pounds to support the Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria. It also pledged to hike its malaria research funding to at least five million pounds a year by 2010 and 20 supply 20 million of the 125 million bed nets needed to close the global bed net gap.
The GMAP offers a comprehensive blueprint for reducing malaria, providing timelines for delivering nets and drugs to all people at risk in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Americas, the Middle East and Eurasia.
Africa alone is estimated to lose at least 12 billion dollars a year in direct costs and much more in gross domestic product losses, GMAP officials said.
Achieving full control in all endemic countries, including strengthening health systems, will cost approximately 5.3 billion dollars in 2009, 6.2 billion in 2010 and 5.1 billion annually from 2011 to 2020, they noted.
Developed through the framework of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership, the scheme marshals the efforts of 30 endemic countries and regions and 65 international institutions behind an unprecedented effort to achieve more rapid results against malaria.
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AFP 251838 GMT 09 08
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