Swiss Malaria Group

Malaria is one of the most devastating diseases of humanity. It kills at least 600,000 people every year, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa. It affects approximately 200 million people annually and traps them in poverty. Swiss public sector institutions, non-governmental organisations and the private sector play a central role in the global fight against malaria. The 15 members of the Swiss Malaria Group, chaired by the SDC, contribute to the decline of malaria cases around the world, through innovative control measures, knowledge and financial flows.

Malaria control and elimination is an area of exemplary health investment, with impressive gains made against the killer disease in recent years and particularly in Africa, where the disease is estimated to cost a minimum of US $12 billion in lost productivity each year and the associated advancements against development targets more broadly.

Publicly and privately funded partnerships have enabled Switzerland to assume a pioneering and internationally recognized leading role in research and development efforts for new medicines and diagnostic products. Swiss-based organisations are among the principal actors in the global fight against malaria.

Swiss Malaria Group is an important actor to show, nationally and internationally, the Swiss engagement against malaria. Credibility and relevance of the group is founded in the expertise and experience of its network members, but the common voice of group sends a strong signal of the need and success of joint actions against malaria, spanning public, private and civil society organisations approaches and activities.

Objectives: 

Under the overall objective to sustain and increase Swiss commitment to malaria elimination, four specific objectives are formulated:

• Organisational Development and Networking: Making use of synergies to join forces
• Advocacy within Switzerland and collaborative with international organisations: Recognizing Switzerland as a leader and mobilizing resources for fighting malaria
• Public relations: Increasing sensitization and awareness
• Technical information sharing: Sharing best practices and dissemination of technical    information

A first 18 months opening credit (1.7.2014-31.12.2015) has permitted to formalise SMG as an association, to set up an Executive Board, chaired by the SDC and including representatives of the different stakeholder groups (public, NGOs, private, product development partnerships, and academia) and an Executive Secretariat hosted by Medicus Mundi Switzerland (MMS), to develop a shared vision and strategy, to launch a webpage, to organise a parliamentary study tour to Tanzania, to realise a technical exchange day, to organise activities around World Malaria Day 2015 and to raise funds for implementing the strategy.

The SDC support to Swiss Malaria Group is consistent with the SDC core mandate of poverty reduction. In particular, it is in line with the SDC’s policy goal of the Global Programme Health aimed at accelerating malaria elimination. The SDC can directly benefit from Swiss Malaria Group by sharing technical, intellectual and communication resources for achieving the policy goal, i.e. to advance a global research & development and access framework that fosters innovative financing and multisectoral approaches to malaria control and elimination.

(Main Credit Phase 1):

01.01.2016

Phase 99 01.01.2024 - 31.12.2025   (Active)