Malaria: Global Fund, Others To Eradicate It With $18b

Yemi Alade and Meji Alabi, two Nigerian Grammy Award winners, are joining the global campaign to end AIDS.

With the launch of the second chapter of the multi-award-winning Draw the Line Against Malaria campaign, both award winners have joined an all-star cast of international change-makers to turn up the pressure in the fight against malaria.

The COVID-19 pandemic still has far-reaching impacts on the world, with global health security and pandemic preparedness remaining at the top of world leaders’ agendas. The next chapter of the campaign aims to ramp up pressure on world leaders to commit to ending malaria at the Kigali Summit and invest US$18 billion in the Global Fund at the Seventh Replenishment in New York this autumn.

While accounting for over half of global funding to end malaria, a fully replenished Global Fund is projected to enable countries and partners to reduce malaria deaths by 62 per cent, treat 550 million malaria cases, and eliminate malaria from six more countries by 2026, as well as unlock the potential of a Zero Malaria world, helping to strengthen equitable health systems and improve the lives and futures of millions of people.

With the support of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, the 2nd phase of Draw the Line is being fronted by a stellar cast of youths, activists, scientists, and stars from Malaria No More United Kingdom Leadership Council founding member David Beckham and FC Barcelona striker Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, to marathon world record-holder Eliud Kipchoge and Afropop singer Yemi Alade.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), says: “The World Health Organisation welcomes a new host of scientists, youth, and champions to join the malaria fight at a crucial time when progress against the disease is lagging. Draw The Line provides a platform for Africa’s most powerful narrators to change this trajectory, disrupt political apathy, and lead the fight to end this treatable and preventable disease which kills a child nearly every minute.”

According to Yemi Alade, singer and Zero Malaria Ambassador, “Growing up in Nigeria I have known malaria forever and experienced the disease countless times, so I understand how this disease robs so many children of their ability to go to schools and why malaria is a major cause of school absenteeism. I believe all children should have equal opportunities to realize their full potential and that’s why I’m here because we can end one of the deadliest preventable diseases of all time.”