Regional Initiatives for Elimination

Unless countries are remote and isolated, they will rely on neighboring countries for their success with elimination. Regional initiatives may be convened for many reasons, including increased joint political support, advocacy and global awareness, and opportunities for increased collaboration, coordination of strategies, and learning from each other.

Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN)

Map of Asia Pacific Of the 39 countries in the world embarking on elimination, ten are located in the Asia Pacific Region: Bhutan, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, and Vanuatu.

Many of these countries have achieved significant gains in malaria elimination; others are just starting. But unlike countries in sub-Saharan Africa, all face the common challenge of having to eliminate Plasmodium vivax.

The Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN) was established in 2009 to bring attention and support to the under-appreciated and little-known work of malaria elimination in Asia Pacific, with a particular focus on Plasmodium vivax. APMEN is composed of ten Asia Pacific countries that are pursing malaria elimination, as well as leaders and experts from key multilateral and academic agencies. The mission of this diverse, but cohesive network, is to collaboratively address the unique challenges of malaria elimination in the region through leadership, advocacy, capacity building, knowledge exchange, and building of the evidence base.

APMEN held its inaugural meeting in Brisbane, Australia in February 2009, and held its second meeting in Kandy, Sri Lanka from February 16 - 19, 2010. Read the APMEN II meeting minutes.

Comment published in The Lancet:
Malaria elimination in Asia-Pacific: an under-told story
Hsiang MS, Abeyasinghe R, Whittaker M, Feachem RGA, The Lancet, 375: 1586-7, 2010

APMEN Research Grant Program

On June 25, 2010 APMEN launched a Research Grant Program which aims to assist in the development of new tools and measures to eliminate malaria in the Asia Pacific Region. In this inaugural funding round, grants will focus on the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax, whose persistent liver stage makes it less vulnerable to elimination efforts. Proposals for short-term operational research or a scientific evaluation of an existing program can be submitted from individuals or organizations from the ten APMEN countries and must be endorsed by their National Malaria Control Program. These research grants will also strengthen the exchanges and lesson sharing between APMEN Countries and Partner Institutions in the region and are made possible with support from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

Find more information on the APMEN Research Grant Program >

APMEN Fellowship Program

To commemorate World Malaria Day 2010 on April 25th, APMEN has launched a fellowship program that aims to train the next generation of regional leaders and health workers with the critical resources to guide elimination efforts in the next decades. Up to five fellows from the APMEN partner countries will be selected annual for short-term training opportunities with a partner country malaria program or institution. Secretariat support for APMEN is provided by the Global Health Group at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Queensland.

Find more information on the APMEN Fellowship Program >

Visit the APMEN site >

Elimination Eight (E8)

Map of Southern Africa For the four southernmost malarious countries in southern Africa to successfully eliminate malaria, it is critical that the countries immediately to their north also focus their efforts on scaled-up malaria control along their southern borders.

From March 2 - 3, 2009, ministers of health from the eight southern African countries met in Windhoek, Namibia to launch the “Elimination Eight” (E8) regional initiative. The goal of the meeting was to increase collaboration among the eight neighboring countries, to achieve their common goal of eventual elimination of malaria in the region, and elimination in four countries, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland, by 2015. The E8 includes these four countries, along with their northern neighbors, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The inaugural meeting was attended by ministers of health from all E8 countries, along with leaders from key multilateral agencies. Ministers agreed to strengthen cross-border collaboration, jointly mobilize financial and technical resources to eliminate malaria, build health systems capacity in the region, and coordinate multi-sectoral efforts among all partners working on malaria activities. The meeting resulted in a Ministerial Resolution which was approved by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), in Maputo, Mozambique in April 2009.

Read the E8 Resolution >

Visit the E8 site >

Saudi-Yemeni Partnership in Combating Malaria

Map of Arabian Peninsula and Africa In 2001, a partnership to combat malaria between Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Yemen began with the goal to free the peninsula from malaria by 2020. Saudi Arabia provides a majority of the financial and technical support to assist Yemen, and since 2002, the partnership has been a great success reducing annual malaria cases by 25%. In February 2010, Saudi Arabia donated $25 million to the Roll Back Malaria Partnership through 2015 to boost efforts to eliminate the disease.

The Tashkent Declaration

Map of Central Asia “The Move from Malaria Control to Elimination” in the WHO European Region is a commitment to action signed by the ministers of health from nine countries. Recalling several World Health Assembly resolutions that identified rolling back malaria in order to achieve internationally agreed targets and goals for controlling malaria, the declaration reaffirmed previous commitments to scale up the response with the objective of interrupting transmission completely. The nine countries include:

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan

Download the Tashkent Declaration