MIN/Sp/AU/CAMH3/6 Malaria Page 7 c) Transmission has been interrupted (referred to as Group 3) Countries including Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Mauritius and the Seychelles in which interruption of malaria transmission was declared recently, the policy of the Malaria Strategy will be prevention of malaria re-introduction and, subsequent certification of malaria elimination. 1.4 Scope of Report and Methodology In the Abuja summit 2006, the Heads of State and Government specifically requested for periodic reports on the status of implementation according to the programme areas that are relevant to malaria in section 1.2 above, targets set in the Abuja Declarations, the RBM Strategic plan and the MDGs. The report has been compiled from published and unpublished reports that have been reviewed, summarized and synthesized to gives an overall view of the situation in the region. Where possible, data are presented in the form of tables, graphs and charts to allow comparison across the region. Given that some of the data are survey-based it has not been possible to have recent data on all the countries as the attention has been paid to 2005-2007 data except for trend analysis in countries with two data points after the year 2000. 2. Situation Analysis 2.1 Leadership at National, regional and continental Levels Since 2000, all countries in the region established RBM coordinating bodies and also developed Malaria Strategic Plans (MSPs) in line with recommended WHO strategies. Currently, 18 countries have developed second generation MSPs or are in the process of finalizing them. These MSPs have been useful for guiding and coordinating partner involvement in malaria control as well as in mobilizing resources from the GFATM. 2.2 Resource Mobilization Countries committed themselves to increase government expenditure on health. By close of 2004, the only governments that were devoting at least 15% of government expenditure on health were Burkina Faso 15.3 %, Liberia 20.1%, Malawi 28.8 % and Rwanda 16.5% 3 . The regional average is 8.8 % while the global average is 14.3% as shown in table 2. Since 2001, several initiatives to increase funding for malaria control have emerged to complement government expenditure on health as well as other bilateral and multilateral arrangements in individual countries. The major initiatives funding traditional malaria control include the Global Fund (GFATM), World Bank Booster Programme (WBB), the Presidents’ Malaria Initiative (PMI) and The Islamic Development Bank. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a major funder of malaria research aimed at developing or improving malaria control tools. 3 WHO (2007) World Health Statistics. Status Report on Malaria in Africa 2008