Aha. Finally some answers (in red below).
http://www.islandsbusiness.com/news/index_dynamic/containerNameToReplace=MiddleMiddle/focusModuleID=130/focusContentID=15210/tableName=mediaRelease/overideSkinName=newsArticle-full.tpl
Big funding boost for war on malaria in Solomon Island
Article from the Solomon Star: website,: http://solomonstarnews.com
Wed, 20 May 2009
Solomon Islands Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) welcomes the increasing momentum being demonstrated by its key partners towards the shared goal of eliminating malaria by 2020.
Permanent Secretary Dr Lester Ross announced that over 2009-2011, an increment of $210 million is planned to be invested in malaria control, and ultimately elimination.
The announcement comes at the end of the recent visit to Isabel Province by Professor Sir Richard Feachem, Chair of the Malaria Reference Group (MRG) of the Pacific Malaria Initiative.
“Together with funding contributed by the national government, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) will be contributing significant resources over this time,” Dr Ross said.
“A good proportion of this new funding will support wide-scale, whole of population coverage of a package of key interventions for preventing malaria.
“These include Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLINs), targeted indoor residual spraying (IRS), the introduction of rapid diagnostic tests to ensure prompt, accurate diagnosis at the community level, and new, highly effective anti-malarial treatments”.
Albino Bobagare, Manager of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (VBDCP) and a member of the MRG, added: “Most importantly, this Global Fund and AusAID funding is being added to the Government’s own malaria funding and managed through one national malaria control and elimination strategy and work plan.”
“This ensures that we manage this funding with long term capacity building and eliminating malaria in mind, rather than operating separate mini projects,” he said.
The Ministry of Health says it is commited to ensuring that the enhanced resources for malaria also strengthen national and provincial health service management, and the capacity of primary care facilities to deliver a wide range of primary care services.
“Replacing fragmented, vertical projects with a strengthened, integrated, and well functioning national health care system is our goal,” Dr Ross said.
He said malaria featured prominently on the agenda of the National Health Conference and the Joint Annual Performance Review of the health sector.
This was held from May 11 to 14.
Recommendations from these meetings will be taken forward by the ministry during 2009, reinforcing the Government’s commitment to improving the health of all Solomon Islanders through the delivery of better preventive and curative health services.
Two key partners helping the ministry to achieve its goals for improved health service delivery, malaria control and, ultimately, malaria elimination are the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Pacific Malaria Initiative Support Centre (PacMISC).
SPC is responsible for the day to day management of funding being contributed by the Global Fund for malaria control while PacMISC, located at the University of Queensland, coordinates and manages AusAID-funded technical assistance to the National VBDCP.
“SPC’s establishment, in early 2009, of its first national Pacific Islands office, in Honiara, provides a unique opportunity to ensure that the malaria grant from the Global Fund supports fully the shared commitment of funding one national malaria programme within the framework of improving overall health services delivery” Mia Rimon, SPC’s Solomon Island spokesperson, said.
SPC performs the role of “Principal Recipient” of all Global Fund financing that will be provided to the Solomon Islands over the next three years, including a new pool of funding for tuberculosis control and a broader health systems strengthening focus.
“SPC’s growing financial and strategic support to the Solomon Islands has been formalised through a Joint Country Strategy that defines key areas of focus, collaboration and mutual accountability for the next five years.
“Importantly, from a Solomon Islander’s perspective, the Joint Country Strategy sets priorities for action that the Solomon Islands themselves have set,” said Dr Jimmie Rodgers, Director General of SPC.
Senda Fifii of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “The Joint Country Strategy is a welcome approach.”
“It signals one of the first times that a funding and technical support partner has taken the government’s Medium Term Development Strategy as the basis for defining how they will work with us to achieve planned and jointly agreed outcomes”.
Mr Fifii said the funding partnership with AusAID and SPC is critical to turning the tide against malaria in the Solomon Islands.
“And our implementation arrangements already show strong signs of strengthened implementation arrangements beyond the Government sector.
“SPC’s focus on supporting the Solomon Islands to build bridges between Government, civil society, faith based organisations and the private sector will, we believe, ensure that this tide is fully turned,” Mr Fifii said.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) (www.spc.int/php) is an international organisation that provides technical and policy advice and assistance, training and research services to its Pacific Island members.
It works in a wide range of sectors, including natural resources (agriculture, fisheries and forestry), health, statistics, human development, information and communication technology and social issues. SPC was established in 1947.
It has 26 member countries and territories and its working languages are English and French.
The organisation has been expanding rapidly and now has approximately 350 staff and a total annual budget of XPF (French Pacific francs) 4.9 billion (approximately USD 60 million).
The mission of SPC’s Public Health Division is to maximise the development potential of Pacific Island people in health, culture and information and enhance the empowerment of women and young people.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (www.theglobalfund.org) is a unique global public/private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
This partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities represents a new approach to international health financing.
The Global Fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organizations to supplement existing efforts dealing with the three diseases.
At the end of 2008, Global Fund-supported programs are estimated to have averted more than 2.5 million deaths by providing AIDS treatment for 2 million people, anti-tuberculosis treatment for 4.6 million people, and by distributing 70 million insecticide-treated bed nets for the prevention of malaria worldwide.
The Global Fund has so far approved funding in 140 countries worth US$ 15.1 billion.
The Malaria Reference Group (MRG) was established to provide high level strategic advice on initiative development and effectiveness during the lifetime of the Pacific Malaria Initiative (http://pacmisc.net/pacmisc/about.asp).
The MRG consists of a small group of highly regarded international malaria experts with complementary expertise. Professor Sir Richard Feachem, former Executive Director of the Global Fund, chairs the MRG.
The MRG is a core component of AusAID’s quality assurance strategy for the Pacific Malaria Initiative.
It meets once a year to review the proposed strategies for malaria control and elimination in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, and provide proactive support to address programme implementation and sustainability challenges.
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