The government of Rwanda has received a $53m grant from the Global Fund as a contribution towards a whopping Rwf295bn ($280 million) required in malaria prevention and treatment efforts running between 2020 and 2024.
The Global Fund is a global partnership designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria as epidemics in more than 100 countries.
As of February 2019, the Global Fund had invested about US$1.4 billion in Rwanda since 2003 and was running US$210m in active grants.
However, Rwanda is not only a beneficiary, it is also a donor, having pledged $3.5m to the Fund’s Sixth Replenishment between 2011 and 2022.
By September last year, the government had managed to obtain a funding commitment of about $206.8m (equivalent to 74 percent) but was sourcing funds to a tune of $73m to roll out a plan that is aimed at momentum towards eliminating malaria.
While explaining the importance of the Funds received from Global Fund, Head of the Malaria and other Parasitic Infections Unit at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre, Dr. Aimable Mbituyumuremyi, said that with effect from this month, the Global Fund package will be broken down and used over the next three years to cover specific areas.
Mbituyumuremyi explained that the funds will be impactful and will continue to play a significant role in reducing the number of malaria deaths and infections.
“The Global Fund money will mainly go to indoor residual spraying in six districts for the next three years, procurement of treated mosquito nets and procurement of malaria commodities which include testing kits, malaria drugs, and supporting community health workers,” he said.
In this phase though, the component of community health workers has been tweaked not only to include comprehensive social behavioral change communication-based at the community level as the main focus but also support in terms of incentives.
Besides the Global Fund, Rwanda also received funding from the US through the Presidential Malaria Initiative (PMI) to the tune of around $18m.
This money will particularly go to spraying in three districts, procurement of mosquito nets, and malaria drugs.
The Ministry of Health says that the national malaria incidence reduced from 401 cases per 1,000-persons in the 2017-2018 fiscal year to 200 cases per 1,000-person in 2019-2020.
