US President Announces Eight New Malaria Priority Countries

WASHINGTON, DC, December 14, 2006 — At a White House Malaria Summit on Thursday, U.S. President George W. Bush added eight more countries to the President's Malaria Initiative that already includes Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.

The new countries are Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali and Zambia. PSI has established malaria programs in all but Ghana and Liberia.

In a related development, the World Bank doubled funding for the fight against malaria with the approval of US$180 million to combat the disease in Nigeria. The US$180 million in interest free loans from the International Development Agency (IDA) will go to a five-year project which will support the government’s program to cut annual Nigeria’s malaria cases in half by 2010. The Nigeria Malaria Booster Control Project is part of the Bank’s Booster Program for Malaria Control in Africa launched in 2005 to reduce malaria in about 21 of Africa's most seriously affected countries.

From the World Bank's website: "The move to massively scale up health services complements the activities of other members of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership in Nigeria, including UK Department for International Development, US Agency for International Development, UNICEF, World Health Organization, Population Services International, Exxon Mobil, and Harvest Field Ltd."

Prior to the Nigeria announcement, some US$177 million had been committed to 10 projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Niger, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Benin, Senegal, Malawi, and the Senegal River Basin as part of a larger Senegal River Basin Infrastructure Project, covering Senegal, Mali, Mauritania and Guinea. The program is currently on track to commit US$413.5 million by the end of a three-year intensive phase ending in fiscal year 2008, out of a target of US$500 million.

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President George W. Bush has announced eight new priority countries at the White House Malaria Summit.