2022 Highlights

December, 2021 marked the 15th anniversary of Malaria No More’s founding. With new technologies and bold political commitments, we believe we have never been closer to realizing our mission to rid the world of malaria. Forever.

NO ONE SHOULD DIE FROM A MOSQUITO BITE

Your partnership and support fuels Malaria No More’s work to mobilize the political commitment, funding, and innovation required to achieve what would be one of the greatest humanitarian accomplishments – eliminating malaria in our lifetimes.

LETTER FROM OUR CEO

To our partners and supporters –

December 2021 marked the 15th Anniversary of the White House Summit on Malaria and the founding of Malaria No More, so it’s a natural moment to reflect on the mission.

Based on revised estimates in the latest WHO World Malaria Report, our collective efforts have saved 10.6 million lives since 2000 – a number far higher than was previously thought. But we also have a better understanding of the true toll of the disease: last year, 627,000 people died from malaria, overwhelmingly children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa.

As we mark our 15th year, Malaria No More is redoubling our efforts and reinventing our strategies to ensure that the next 15 years are the last 15 years for humanity’s oldest and deadliest pandemic. With the rollout of a new malaria vaccine approved by the WHO and financed by Gavi, and a pipeline of other transformative tools in development, we’ve never been more confident in the purpose or the possibility of our mission to end deaths from mosquito bites.

We’re stretching in new and compelling ways: using blended finance to expand resources for malaria programming in Africa; harnessing artificial intelligence to turn climate change from an obstacle to an opportunity to accelerate progress against malaria; helping the US government to leverage the malaria platform to win the COVID endgame and prepare for the next pandemic; and stepping up our partnership to help the Government of India achieve its 2030 malaria elimination goal.

Thank you, as ever, for your partnership and support.

Sincerely,

Martin Edlund

CEO, Malaria No More

Our Work Isn’t Done

In 2022 there were…

Together, We Can End Malaria

At Malaria No More, we’re focused on ending the world’s oldest, deadliest disease. See the highlights from Malaria No More’s efforts in 2021, made possible by your partnership and support.

Leveraging U.S. Leadership

Making the case for increased resources for domestic and global health spending posed a challenge, as all countries felt the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic on their domestic healthcare and economies. But MNM ensured that malaria was at the top of policy agendas and that in a post-COVID world, the malaria campaign will be central to building back better and future pandemic preparedness. In partner donor countries such as the UK, Japan and Korea, we have seen the ability of the US to leverage its influence to ensure that other leading donors are stepping up to do their part in global health. The Biden Administration’s first Congressional budget request included a request of flat funding of $770m for PMI for FY22, and $1.56b for the Global Fund. Turning our attention to Congress, MNM worked with PMI to develop a specific set of priority funding needs focused on addressing additional COVID-19-related costs and leveraging malaria for COVID-19 response. These efforts resulted in the House Appropriations Committee passing a high-watermark of $820m (+$50m above the FY21 enacted number) for PMI and the Senate passing an $800m figure (+$30m). Both included flat funding for the Global Fund ($1.56b) in line with the US government’s three-year pledge to the Global Fund. Ultimately, the overall allocation to the international affairs budget was dramatically reduced during negotiations between Democrats and Republicans over defense and non-defense discretionary spending. However, PMI was among just four accounts supported for increase by the Senate Appropriations Committee, and received an allocation of $775m for FY22 – an increase of $5m above FY21. Malaria No More’s advocacy will be critical in 2022 and beyond, as the Global Fund looks to its 7th Replenishment Conference hosted in the United States and PMI has set a bold strategy to End Malaria Faster with an aspirational budget of $1 billion annually.

Transform Health Fund Announced at US-Africa Leaders Summit

At December’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C., hosted by President Biden, the Health Finance Coalition (HFC) and AfricInvest announced the pan-African Transform Health Fund to finance the scaling of proven, innovative models that improve access, affordability, resilience, and quality of healthcare in Africa with $50 million in pledged commitments. This innovative blended-finance fund focused on locally led health supply chain, care delivery, and digital solutions in Africa is a collaborative effort bringing together commercial, government, and donor investments. To respond to the critical healthcare financing gap in Africa while building a resilient ecosystem, the Transform Health Fund will target three key areas serving low-income patients: supply chain transformation, innovative care delivery, and digital innovation.

Global Fund Replenishment

Malaria No More, through its Forecasting Healthy Futures (FHF) initiative, has been working at the intersection of health and climate change in a variety of different settings— from an advocacy workshop series in India, to a Malaria No More Japan webinar, to meetings with the End Malaria Council and APLMA, to the Climate Services User Forum of the South Asian Seasonal Climate Outlook Forum seminars. In early 2021, Malaria No More launched the India Interagency Expert Committee on Malaria and Climate (IEC), a cross-governmental platform to encourage multiple government agencies to collaborate and engage. Forecasting Healthy Futures continues to grow its network of experts through global webinars, partner meetings, forums and more to promote innovation and leadership. This includes the newly established Institute for Malaria and Climate Solutions (IMACS), which aims to share learnings and collectively advance the discipline for everyone working in early warning systems, promoting the variety of tools and solutions that exist, supporting research on new tools, and creating a new network of experts.

Forecasting Healthy Futures Expands Climate & Health Work

This fall, MNM announced the expansion of its climate initiative, Forecasting Healthy Futures, through a new 3-year grant from the Reaching the Last Mile initiative (RLM). This award will allow for the continued implementation and evaluation of our Malaria Precision Planning Tool (MPPT) in India and its expansion to Indonesia, and provide opportunities to convene multiple events to advance our advocacy work. Alongside RLM, Forecasting Healthy Futures had a major presence at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, including a panel entitled “Climate-Proofing Global Health Systems with Earth Observation Data, Artificial Intelligence, and other Transformative Technologies.” The FHF team also announced plans for the first-ever Forecasting Healthy Futures Global Summit to convene March 14-16, 2023 in Abu Dhabi.

Driving India’s National Strategic Plan for Elimination

In recognition of our critical role in malaria elimination advocacy and innovation throughout India, MNM India was invited to play a central role in the planning process for the country’s next 5-year National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination (NSP). Our team contributed to the Joint Monitoring Mission for Malaria Elimination, led by WHO, to assess the existing efforts towards malaria elimination in the country. MNM India also joined multiple NSP planning meetings, often as the only NGO, promoting policy and practice improvements based on our work, such as strengthened surveillance and notification systems, a private sector reporting platform, strengthening of ante-natal care-based surveillance, and geospatial climate-informed malaria mapping for improved targeting of interventions.

India National Strategic Plan Contribution

This year, Malaria No More India ran its second annual Bite Ko Mat Lo Lite (Hinglish for “Don’t take the bite lightly”) social media campaign. The campaign reached 180,839,004 people, had 38,025,785 engagements and saw a 4.8% increase in bed net usage amongst 18 to 24 years olds, notoriously the most difficult group to change behavior. On World Mosquito Day 2021, we launched a six-workshop advocacy series, designed to support the Government of India as they develop the National Strategic Plan for malaria elimination for 2022 – 2027. To support the frontline health workers in India, MNM recruited and trained a team of support workers called Malaria Saathis (“friends”) and Malaria Doots (“messengers”), who conduct active and passive surveillance, case-based surveillance, mass screening, use rapid diagnostic tests, and create awareness and knowledge around malaria prevention and treatment.