Venezuela gives West Africa US$20 million to fight Malaria

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The Economic Community of  West African States (ECOWAS) and Venezuela have agreed and begun to implement measures  to execute their 2009 memorandum of understanding (MOU) towards the  elimination of malaria in West Africa. Under the MOU, which was signed during a first high-level ministerial  visit to Venezuela, the country agreed to provide 20 million U.S.  dollars to support an ECOWAS vector control program of malaria  elimination through biolarvidicing. Biolarvicides are sprayed on the  habitats of mosquitoes to eliminate their larvae, one of the stages in  the evolution of mosquitoes.  ECOWAS and the  Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Abidjan, Cote  d’Ivoire on Saturday, 1st December 2012, signed the Work Plan for the  implementation of a 2009 Letter of Intent between them for the  elimination of Malaria in West Africa.The Agreement  was initialled by the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Kadre Desiré  Ouedraogo, and the Venezuelan Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs for  Africa,  Reinaldo Bolivar on the sidelines of the 69th  Ordinary session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers.

Both parties signed the Letter of Intent in Venezuela in 2009, within the framework of the ECOWAS campaign to eliminate malaria in West  Africa by 2015, and for the creation of a multilateral fund for  cooperation on health, education, agriculture, energy and  infrastructure. This is a follow-up to the Tripartite Agreement by  ECOWAS, Cuba and Venezuela to support the ECOWAS anti-malaria campaign  through the establishment of biolarvicide factories in West Africa,  capacity building and technology transfer.

President Ouedraogo explained that high-level meetings held in Cuba  and Venezuela in April 2012 and in Abidjan had resulted in the  finalisation of the Work Plan which emphasizes the need to take all  necessary measures to accelerate the implementation of identified  activities.
“This Agreement addresses in particular, matters relating to the  construction of factories, implementation mechanism for the multilateral fund and capacity building in response to the challenges of malaria  scourge in West Africa,” he affirmed.
For his part, honourable Bolivar expressed his satisfaction at the  signing of the accord within the framework of South-South cooperation  which, according to him, should grow significantly in view of  similarities between Africa and South America, and especially given the  potentials of the two regions.
Describing the agreement as important not only for Africa, but also  for south of Venezuela, which is also affected by malaria, he noted that a number of meetings had taken place to translate into action the  Letter of Intent signed during the second South America-Africa Summit on the Venezuelan island of Margarita in September 2009.
Malaria is both a major public health problem and a development issue in West Africa. It is associated with poverty, and according to World  Bank figures, costs Africa about US$12 billion a year.
The ECOWAS Campaign is to complement and coordinate on-going efforts  in Member countries to enhance the vector control component of an  integrated strategy for the elimination of malaria. The World Health  Organization (WHO) has identified vector control as the only action that can reduce high malaria transmission rates to almost zero.