The African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), an alliance of 39 African leaders, has been awarded a $250,000 grant to help with its campaign to combat malaria.

ALMA, chaired by Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and recently elected Deputy Chair, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, was launched in 2009 as a collaborative effort for African leaders to work together with the African Union, United Nations and other local and international partners to combat malaria in Africa. The alliance seeks to complement efforts that address the challenges of malaria and aims to raise malaria awareness at the global, national and local levels.

The grant is from the ExxonMobil Foundation, and will support ALMA’s advocacy and communications efforts, as well as technical assistance to governments.

“We are thrilled and grateful to be awarded a grant from the ExxonMobil Foundation, a long-time ally in Africa’s efforts to fight malaria,” said ALMA Executive Secretary Johannah-Joy Phumaphi. “We have recently seen great success in the fight against malaria and we must all remain steadfast in our efforts.”

The past year has seen enormous progress in the battle against malaria in Africa, due in large part to the collaborative work of ALMA, which has been instrumental in accelerating access to and the use of malaria control interventions such as mosquito nets. The World Health Organization’s World Malaria Report 2010 reports 80 percent net coverage and an additional 10 percent coverage when indoor spraying is included. Its focus now is to sustain this coverage and to eliminate preventable malaria deaths by 2015.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most affected by malaria in the world, with 90 percent of malaria mortality occurring there. Malaria also accounts for 40 percent of hospital admissions in this region and is a leading cause of workplace and school absenteeism. When accounting for direct costs and lost economic productivity associated with the disease, malaria costs the African economy $12 billion in lost GDP annually.

Source: Business Wire