Eswatini among E430m Global Fund beneficiaries
MBABANE – Eswatini will benefit from the about E430 million (US$24 million) grant from the Global Fund to fight Malaria in South Africa, Eswatini and Mozambique.
According to AFRICA.com, the governments of Mozambique, South Africa and Eswatini, in partnership with The Global Fund, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Goodbye Malaria, recently received a third MOSASWA regional grant following the successful completion of two previous grants.
MOSASWA is a trilateral agreement between the governments of Mozambique, South Africa and Eswatini, with the aim of working collaboratively across borders to accelerate malaria elimination in the South East African region.It was reported that the new grant, totalling US$24 million, will run from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2025.
It was stated that during this period, a primary focus would be assisting South Africa and Eswatini to move closer to malaria elimination. Southern Mozambique would see districts begin to enter sub-national malaria elimination with a continued decline in both morbidity and cases, in all three provinces of operation, namely Gaza, Inhambane and Maputo.
Since 2017, the grant had scaled up annually from protecting one million citizens to over three million in 2022. This growth continued during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Maputo province there had been a 63 per cent decrease in malaria morbidity since 2017, with a 53 per cent reduction in malaria cases. This significant reduction in cases is ensuring reduced cross-border malaria transmission in the region.
The partnership between the three countries had shown continued collaboration in working together across their borders, aligning policies and programmes to ensure a regionally coordinated effort.
Collaboration
“This collaboration is pivotal to South Africa and Eswatini moving towards malaria elimination within the next five years,” read the report.
Sherwin Charles, Co-founder and CEO of Goodbye Malaria, said the unique partnership had ensured that continued regional success has equated to continued investment in the fight against malaria; this was despite a global pandemic and economic crisis.
“As malaria knows no borders, neither does our fight against it,” she said.
Minister of Health Lizzie Nkosi confirmed this, stating that the proposal was done jointly between the countries.
She said they would be having a meeting as countries to discuss operational details.
Nkosi said mosquitoes knew no borders; it had to be concerted efforts with Eswatini’s neighbours that would ensure they fully controlled malaria.
“We as a country are among the elimination 8 (E8), so it is in our best interests that we fight malaria shoulder to shoulder with our neighbours,” she said.
She said the country and its neighbours shared research, surveillance, strategies, and expertise. Nkosi said it was through the funding that the countries were able to do that.
She said for Eswatini, the grant was an additional to its specific grants. It is worth mentioning that on January 30, on behalf of the Ministry of Health, Nkosi received mefloquine drugs worth E370 000donated by the End Malaria Fund.
This donation was attributed to the efforts made by the private sector, technical partners and civil society who assisted the fund in collecting resources needed to support the National Malaria Programme as they implemented critical preventative programmes in affected communities.