For Immediate Release JOINT PRESS RELEASE Roll Back Malaria Partnership United Nations Development Programme

Experts call for focus on social determinants to bolster malaria response Geneva, 5 July 2013 (RBM / UNDP) – A global coalition of experts called this week for a broader response to malaria and expanded work to address the social and environmental factors that perpetuate it, saying the disease impedes efforts to tackle poverty and advance both economic and human development. Although malaria is one of today’s – and history’s – great health challenges, the factors that make people vulnerable to it lie to a great extent beyond the health sector, such as housing, education, urban planning, agriculture, transport and mining, all contribute to make people more or less vulnerable to infection. Experts from government, academia, civil society, international financing institutions, UN organizations and the private sector were convened in Geneva by Roll Back Malaria and the United Nations Development Programme to assess what contribution they could make in expanding the fight against malaria beyond the health sector. The experts developed an Action Framework, which will be reflected in the discussions on the Sustainable Development Goals, the next Global Malaria Action Plan for 2016-2025 and national malaria strategies. “In addition to its direct impact on the health of millions worldwide, malaria also impacts on the economy and development in general,” said Dr. Fatoumata Nafo Traoré, Executive Director of the RBM Partnership. “In Africa alone, malaria related-illnesses and mortality cost the economy at least US$12 billion per year. So by investing in malaria we are investing in the fight against poverty and in socio-economic development.”

“It was not through bed nets and better medicine alone that Northern Europe and North America eliminated endemic malaria,”