The Sixth Southern Africa Malaria Annual Conference will be held
as from the 25 – 31st July 2004, Gaborone, Botswana
Team Work and Monitoring Performance in Achieving the Abuja Targets -Together We Can Make A Difference.

Countries within Southern Africa are getting together to review progress in malaria prevention and control within the context of the Southern Africa Development Community (Angola, Mozambique, Madagascar, Malawian, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Tanzania). These countries are now in their sixth year of building country national malaria control programmes for Roll Back Malaria in Southern Africa.

The Annual Malaria Conference this year will be held as from the 25th –30th July, 2004 in Gaborone, Botswana.  Participants to this meeting will come from National Malaria Control Programmes, national and international RBM partnerships. Representatives from the WHO, UNICEF, Global fund, SADC Health Desk, Malaria Research Institutions , SADC Military, and the private sector will also participate in the meeting. The malaria annual conference provides opportunities for countries to review progress, take stock of the achievements, share lessons learnt and best practices and plan for the next malaria season.

The goal of the conference will be to contribute to malaria control teamwork and report performance in scaling up the delivery of malaria control interventions.  The specific objectives of the meeting will be to:

1. To review country progress and performance and challenges in scaling up malaria control strategic plans towards achieving the Abuja Targets.

2. To develop a consensus on methods of measuring and reporting on performance of malaria teams and malaria programmes in Southern Africa.

3. To update the status and identify strategies for fast tracking the implementation of the GFTAM funds for malaria control.

4. To identify innovative strategies for scaling up malaria control interventions for achieveing the 2005 Abuja Targets.

Most of the countries in Southern Africa Development community block are making steady progress in scaling up RBM. The 2003/2004 malaria season has seen increased financing by the countries, major RBM partners and support for GFTAM implementation plans. The increasing malaria control support for commodities such as ITNs, insecticides, and drugs with improved logistics are supporting the timely delivery of malaria control programmes. The high demand and pressure to scale up malaria interventions requires concerted efforts in tracking inputs and outputs as well as measuring impact in Malaria Control Programmes.

The Roll Back malaria partnership with the Global Fund is an opportunity for scaling up malaria prevention and control. GFATM supports additional financing and guarantees more adequate financing for communicable diseases control. Some of the key strategies to be highlighted in the conference will be:

	Monitoring performance of malaria prevention and control in achieving the Abuja Targets.
	Increasing Political, policy, professional and private sector support for scaling up the delivery of malaria control interventions
	Promoting the building of capacity and partnership of RBM partners in Rolling Back Malaria
	Updating the status and identifying interventions for fast tracking the implementation of the GFATM malaria control programmes

However in the SADC region, there still exist challenges in the implementation of malaria interventions, these include:

1. Inadequate malaria human resources.

2. Difficult in moving from meetings and workshops to operational malaria control delivery.

3. Lack timely delivery of malaria control interventions.

4. Inadequate country and partner’s capacity in malaria control.

Malaria continues to be a social and a major public health problem in Southern Africa. In recent years, reported malaria cases have shown decreasing malaria trends, (South Africa and Swaziland) and increasing trends in (Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, and Malawi). The reasons for the above picture could be due to improved coverage of the health picture information system, reduced coverage of malaria control interventions and generally due to deterioration in the performance of the health sector in the countries. In the SADC Region, about 200 000, malaria deaths occur annually. Children under five and pregnant women are at greater risk.

Remember malaria is preventable and curable:

	Seek treatment early if you develop a fever or suspect malaria.
	Use treated mosquito net to avoid mosquito bites.

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