Tories pledge £500m to tackle malaria
The Conservatives have today made their first major pledge on international aid by promising to spend £500 million a year on tackling malaria.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne made the announcement during a three-day trip to Uganda with professor Jeffrey Sachs, a former special advisor on aid to UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
He said a Tory government would spend at least $1 billion (£500 million) a year until the UN millennium development goal (MDG) to cut and begin reversing the level of new cases of malaria by 2015 was met.
In a speech to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and Ugandan politicians in Kampala, Mr Osborne also committed his party to spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on aid, as promised at the UN 30 years ago.
“The commitment of the Conservative party to increased spending on international development could not be clearer. We will increase Britain’s spending on international development from 0.47 per cent of GDP today to 0.7 per cent of GDP by 2013,” he said.
Mr Osborne said Britain should also do more to fight disease, and said today’s financial commitment was in recognition of “both the terrible impact of the disease [malaria] and the immense economic and social benefits of its eradication”.
The money is a third of the total amount the World Health Organisation believes is required to win the war against malaria. About one million people a year die of the disease, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa and most of these children.
“This is an unprecedented commitment by a single country. It will be met from our expanding aid budget,” Mr Osborne said, adding: “I hope that other nations follow our lead, and join us as we fight to make malaria deaths a thing of the past.”
Professor Sachs welcomed the announcement as “excellent” and “spot on”, saying: “Fighting malaria will help Africa make a real breakthrough, not only in health but in overall economic and social development.”
Development charity Oxfam also welcomed the pledge, but head of advocacy Jo Leadbeater warned the funding must be channelled through existing funds such as the Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and malaria (GFATM).
“Efforts to tackle killer diseases like malaria and HIV/Aids can only be truly effective if funding and priority is put into strong public health systems – the nurses, doctors, access to medicines and infrastructure which underpin any successful programme of treatment,” she said.
“It is significant that [Ms Osborne] has recognised that privatisation of healthcare, especially if this is imposed by the IMF or World Bank, is not the solution for developing countries to provide good quality health care for all their citizens, rich or poor.”
