Your
Excellency, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the President of
the Republic of Liberia;
Honorable
Hussein Ali Mwinyi (MP), Minister of
Health and Social Welfare;
Dr.
Rufaro Chatora, Representative of the World
Health Organization in Tanzania;
Members
of the Diplomatic Corps;
Distinguished
Guests;
Ladies
and Gentlemen;
Once again it is my
pleasure to welcome you, Madame President, to Tanzania. We thank you very much
for accepting my invitation to visit us and agreeing to launch the African
Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) offices.
Ladies
and Gentlemen;
As many of you know,
Africa is the continent most affected by malaria. The disease accounts for
85 percent of malaria cases and 89 percent of
malaria deaths worldwide, the majority being children under five years of age
and pregnant women. Malaria also retards economic growth of the continent and
over-burdens the already overstretched health care services in most African
countries. In fact, malaria has been estimated to cost Africa at least
US Dollars 12 billion every year. Despite these devastating
effects of malaria, the scourge can be prevented, controlled and eventually
eliminated in Africa.
It is for this reason
that in September, 2009, some African leaders gathered at the United Nations
Headquarters in New York, United States of America and decided to form an
alliance to intensify the fight against malaria and ultimately end
malaria-related deaths in Africa. We formed a coalition to mobilize and
coordinate our collective efforts as well as mobilize international support from
nations, international organizations as well as institutions and persons of
goodwill in the fight against malaria. We formed the African Leaders Malaria
Alliance, in short ALMA. I was privileged and honoured to be the first
Chairman of ALMA until January, 2012 when I handed over to my dear sister Her
Excellency President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of the Republic of Liberia who is our
chief guest at this event today.
Your
Excellency;
Since its inception,
ALMA has been very instrumental in enhancing global partnership and mobilizing
substantial resources to fight the scourge of malaria in Africa. As a result,
many African countries have been able to scale up malaria interventions and
reduce malaria related deaths and the social burden of the disease it engenders.
One of the landmark achievements was the adoption of the ALMA Scorecard for
Accountability and Action in September, 2011. In fact, this new innovative way
of tracking progress on key malaria indicators establishes transparency and
accountability framework for rapid response to emerging issues and consolidates
national data from multiple sources.
I would like to take
this opportunity to thank all the African leaders for their commitment and
efforts to fight malaria; and to all our partners for their immense contribution
and support towards our noble goal of eradicating malaria-related deaths by
2015. I know our target is ambitious but doable if we scale up interventions on
the fight against malaria. I commend our very able ALMA Secretariat, under the
leadership of Madam Joy Phumaphi, for the good work of building the institution
and coordinating our efforts. Without the dedicated services rendered by staff
of the Secretariat, we would not be here today celebrating one of our
achievements. Thank you very much Madame Joy, Saleemah, Dr. Halima, Melanie,
Kwame, Samson and Mary for your wonderful service to our dear
continent.
And above all,
ladies and gentlemen, I want to sincerely thank President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
for her leadership in steering the affairs of ALMA. Within a very short time,
her vibrancy and visionary leadership have proven to be an asset in the fight
against malaria in Africa. I am sure by the time her tenure ends, Africa will
leap several steps forward in the fight against malaria. Tanzania will continue
to support you and the work of ALMA until we attain our lofty
objective.
Your
Excellency;
Invited
guests;
Ladies
and Gentlemen;
On behalf of the
government of the United Republic of Tanzania, it is now my pleasure to
hand-over new offices of the ALMA Secretariat here in Dar es Salaam. These
offices are available to ALMA as a contribution of the government and the people
of the United Republic of Tanzania to ALMA in recognition of its efforts in
fighting Malaria in the continent.
Finally, it is now my
singular honor and privilege to welcome you Madame President to the podium to
deliver your remarks and then launch the ALMA Secretariat offices here in Dar es
Salaam.
Madam,
welcome!
