ReliefWeb

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Malaria prevention and control are major foreign assistance objectives of the U.S. Government (USG). In May 2009, President Barack Obama announced the Global Health Initiative (GHI), a six-year, comprehensive effort to reduce the burden of disease and promote healthy communities and families around the world. Through the Global Health Initiative the USG will invest $63 billion over the next six years to strengthen healthy and productive lives, building upon and expanding the USG's successes in addressing specific diseases and issues.

The President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) is a core component of the GHI, along with HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and tuberculosis. The PMI was launched in June 2005 as a 5-year, $1.2 billion initiative to rapidly scale up malaria prevention and treatment interventions and reduce malaria-related mortality by 50% in 15 high-burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa. With passage of the 2008 Lantos-Hyde Act, funding for PMI has now been extended through FY 2014. Programming of PMI activities follows the core principles of GHI: encouraging country ownership and investing in country-led plans and health systems; increasing impact and efficiency through strategic coordination and programmatic integration; strengthening and leveraging key partnerships, multilateral organizations, and private contributions; implementing a woman- and girl-centered approach; improving monitoring and evaluation; and promoting research and innovation. Kenya is a GHI plus country.

The malaria situation in Kenya is changing. A decline in the burden of malaria in Kenya has been observed in recent years resulting in low malaria transmission intensity in most parts of the country. However, moderate to high levels of transmission remain in certain endemic zones. Consequently, as part of the Division of Malaria Control's (DOMC) 2009-2017 National Malaria Strategy, prevention and control interventions are now focused in those districts with the highest malaria endemnicity rather than diffused and provided equally throughout the country.

Kenya's Round Four malaria grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) is coming to an end in January 2011. Kenya has been unsuccessful in the last four grant applications. At the time of writing, Kenya's Round 10 application is being finalized for submission; if successful, this grant would begin funding activities no earlier than the last quarter of 2011. The gap in Global Fund grants that will occur in 2011 places particular pressure on other donors to prioritize the most critical malaria control measures and continue to fund life-saving interventions.

The PMI 2011 Malaria Operational Plan was developed in close consultation with the Ministry's DOMC and with participation of numerous national and international partners involved with malaria prevention and control in the country. The activities that PMI is proposing for FY 2011 are matched with identified needs and priorities described in the DOMC's National Malaria Strategy (2009-2017) and build on investments designed to improve and expand malaria-related services during the first three years of PMI funding. The proposed FY 2011 PMI budget for Kenya is $36 million.