Pacific Malaria Initiative

  1. The Australian Aid Program identifies malaria as a key area of focus. Australia’s Pacific Malaria Initiative will commit $25 million over four years to combat malaria in the Pacific (2007-2014). Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have among the highest incidence of malaria outside Africa.
  2. The Initiative works closely with the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund), the World Health Organization, and Secretariat of the Pacific Community and also has strong links with Australian and international institutions engaged in malaria research (such as The University of Queensland, The Queensland Institute of Medical Research and the Australian Army Malaria Institute).  The initiative will target those most-at-risk such as pregnant women, children and zones of high malaria prevalence.
  3. Australian support for the PacMI is set within the comprehensive integrated national malaria control and elimination programmes in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Implementation of national malaria programmes is based on a single consolidated malaria workplan to ensure the combined resources (Ministries of Health, Global Fund, WHO and AusAID) are used most efficiently. The central challenge will be to strengthen partner governments' health systems to increase the effectiveness of malaria control and the capacity to carry out high quality program surveillance, monitoring, evaluation and operational research to inform future evidence-based health policy.
  4. Country Malaria Strategies and Malaria Action Plans have been extensively revised to reflect in-country and development partner commitment to expanded malaria control and progressive elimination in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Specific targets are:
    • Reduce malaria incidence in the Solomon Islands by 65% (from 128 per 1,000 in 2007 to 46 per 1,000 population by 2014)and by 70% in Vanuatu (from 23 per 1,000 in 2007 to 7 per 1,000 population by 2014)
    • Reduce mortality rate by 95% in the Solomon Islands (from 7 per 100,000 in 2007 to <0.1 per 100,000 population by 2014), and by 100% in Vanuatu (from 3  per 100,000 population in 2007 to zero deaths by 2014)
    • Eliminate malaria from Temotu (Solomon Islands) and Tafea (Vanuatu) by 2014.
  5. A Malaria Reference Group (MRG) has been established to provide high level strategic advice on initiative development and effectiveness during the life of the malaria initiative. 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 initiative has been benefiting from a broad range of expertise from MRG members. The MRG is a core component of AusAID’s quality assurance strategy for the malaria initiative.
  6. An important component of the PacMI is funding for a Pacific Malaria Initiative Support Centre (PacMISC). The role of PacMISC is to provide highly flexible, responsive program management support and technical assistance to countries in the implementation of aggressive, intensified malaria control and progressive malaria elimination programs.

Sir Richard Feachem, Chair of the Malaria Reference Group, looks on while blood for malaria testing is taken from a child on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. Tanna is selected by the Vanuatu Government for an accelerated program aimed at malaria elimination as part of the Pacific Malaria Initiative.