African Summit on Roll Back Malaria: summary report

The first African Summit on Roll Back Malaria (RBM), held in Abuja, Nigeria in 2000, may have reflected consensus between African states regarding strategies in the fight against malaria, but exactly what was agreed and what should follow? This summary report, written by the World Health Organisation (WHO), presents the outcomes of the summit, and reflects on the next steps for the global partnership and its role in the fight against the disease.

A list of the major participants is given, and the background to the conference is outlined, briefly describing a technical session that was held preceding the summit. The major outcomes and agreements reached at the summit are presented followed by recommendations for the RBM global partnership and a timetable for the work to be implemented following the agreements reached at the summit.

The Declaration and the Plan of Action agreed at the summit reaffirmed the principles and targets of the Harare Declaration of 1997, committing to halve malaria mortality in Africa by 2010 and to strengthen health systems to ensure mid-way targets for 2005 are met. The Declaration also called for cancellation in full of the debt of poor and heavily indebted African countries in order to release resources for programmes such as RBM. Agreements included:

• ensure implementation, monitoring and management of RBM through action at the regional level
• provide and allocate resources at the country level to facilitate implementation of RBM, and work with partners to ensure allocation of necessary resources from private and public sectors and NGOs
• promote community participation and joint ownership of RBM
• make diagnosis and treatment of malaria available and accessible to the poorest groups in the community, including treatment in the home
• reduce or waive taxes and tariffs for mosquito nets, materials, insecticides, anti-malarial drugs and other recommended goods and services for malaria control
• develop mechanisms to provide the reliable information necessary for appropriate decision-making.

Recommendations for the RBM global partnership following the summit include:

• providing information and informing countries on available resources, procedures and the best method for accessing them
• launching a scaling up of activities in line with agreed strategies to over thirty malaria affected countries
• agreeing through a series of consultations for each country, the base-line situation, milestones for scaling up malaria interventions, the resources to be committed, the financing arrangements and the management capacities necessary to ensure efficient and effective disbursement
• staggering target dates for the commencement of the implementation stage across Africa
• developing a plan for strengthening existing multi-country initiatives and encouraging other countries to explore areas and issues for inter-country cooperation and collaboration.