His Majesty King and Ingwenyama Mswati III of the Kingdom Of Swaziland,
Chair of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA)
What work is being done to rid Africa of malaria?
“In my role, it’s important to continue work to rid the African continent of the scourge of malaria. Over the past 15 months, many African nations have developed a national malaria scorecard to track progress on malaria control and elimination. One major area that I want to work on, is to increase domestic resources for malaria and to accelerate the agenda on manufacturing pharmaceuticals in Africa.”
Malaria knows no border, so we must collaborate across country and regional lines.
What’s happening with malaria in Swaziland?
“I am fully committed to a malaria-free Swaziland. Indeed, we have full operational coverage of vector control with mosquito nets and indoor residual spraying. Recently, I more than doubled our budget for indoor residual spraying and increased the amount that we are spending on malaria programmes. We were the first country to institute a national malaria elimination scorecard to track our progress and according to WHO, Swaziland can eliminate malaria by 2020. We are doing everything possible to achieve this goal.”
What are your upcoming priorities for malaria elimination in Africa?
“We are racing to meet the targets that we set. Top priorities are increasing domestic resources for malaria so that we can scale up and sustain universal coverage. We are working with the RBM Partnership to End Malaria to strengthen the national malaria scorecards and to establish national End Malaria councils.”
“Malaria knows no border, so we must collaborate across country and regional lines. We will also stamp out malaria increases where they occur and continue to address drug and insecticide resistance. I hope to be celebrating our countries eliminating malaria in the coming years. We will achieve a malaria-free Africa!”
