• News
    • Latest news
    • News search
    • Health
    • Finance
    • Food
    • Career news
    • Content series
    • Try Devex Pro
  • Jobs
    • Job search
    • Post a job
    • Employer search
    • CV Writing
    • Upcoming career events
    • Try Career Account
  • Funding
    • Funding search
    • Funding news
  • Talent
    • Candidate search
    • Devex Talent Solutions
  • Events
    • Upcoming and past events
    • Partner on an event
  • Post a job
  • About
      • About us
      • Membership
      • Newsletters
      • Advertising partnerships
      • Devex Talent Solutions
      • Contact us
Join DevexSign in
Join DevexSign in

News

  • Latest news
  • News search
  • Health
  • Finance
  • Food
  • Career news
  • Content series
  • Try Devex Pro

Jobs

  • Job search
  • Post a job
  • Employer search
  • CV Writing
  • Upcoming career events
  • Try Career Account

Funding

  • Funding search
  • Funding news

Talent

  • Candidate search
  • Devex Talent Solutions

Events

  • Upcoming and past events
  • Partner on an event
Post a job

About

  • About us
  • Membership
  • Newsletters
  • Advertising partnerships
  • Devex Talent Solutions
  • Contact us
  • My Devex
  • Update my profile % complete
  • Account & privacy settings
  • My saved jobs
  • Manage newsletters
  • Support
  • Sign out
Latest newsNews searchHealthFinanceFoodCareer newsContent seriesTry Devex Pro
    • News

    In Africa, Is Development Causing Malaria?

    By Ma. Rizza Leonzon // 21 January 2011

    Pushing for development and combating malaria in Africa at the same time may do more harm than good in wiping out the disease, a researcher suggests.

    “The real way to get rid of malaria is to reverse the dynamics of rural-to-urban migration and build comfortable, stable rural communities first—something that is probably never going to happen in Africa—and then to attack the disease,” according to James Pogue, a writer living in Brooklyn and a researcher at Architectural Digest. “Rural to urban migration, the kind that dominates in Africa today, promotes the spread of the disease.”

    Westerners like Jeffrey Sachs and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation want to simultaneously fight malaria and promote development in Africa, Pogue says. But fostering development in Africa encourages rural people to move to cities that are “full of fetid pools and open water tanks” and draws migrant laborers to projects such as dams and mines.

    These development impacts expose those without any immunity to malaria, Pogue notes.

    “There’s no way, for example, that malaria could exist in the part of the Sahara where I worked if it weren’t for the French-built mine that brought infected farm workers from the south of the country to live in Zouérat, next to a fecal oasis where the sewage from the expatriates’ houses drained into a swampy grove of palm trees—a perfect place for anopheles to breed. The people in Zouérat mostly lived in tents, and would never have used bed nets,” Pogue writes in the magazine Guernica. “Its real value is in showing that we may do more harm by trying.”

    • Global Health
    • Research
    Printing articles to share with others is a breach of our terms and conditions and copyright policy. Please use the sharing options on the left side of the article. Devex Pro members may share up to 10 articles per month using the Pro share tool ( ).

    About the author

    • Ma. Rizza Leonzon

      Ma. Rizza Leonzon

      As a former staff writer, Rizza focused mainly on business coverage, including key donors such as the Asian Development Bank and AusAID.

    Search for articles

    Related Stories

    MalariaIs the world on track to eradicate malaria?

    Is the world on track to eradicate malaria?

    MalariaOpinion: Eliminating malaria is an economic rocket for Africa and the US

    Opinion: Eliminating malaria is an economic rocket for Africa and the US

    Economic developmentOpinion: We firmly believe Africa has the development solutions it needs

    Opinion: We firmly believe Africa has the development solutions it needs

    Global healthOpinion: Diaspora scientists are supercharging Africa’s health innovation

    Opinion: Diaspora scientists are supercharging Africa’s health innovation

    Most Read

    • 1
      The power of diagnostics to improve mental health
    • 2
      Lasting nutrition and food security needs new funding — and new systems
    • 3
      The UN's changing of the guard
    • 4
      Opinion: Urgent action is needed to close the mobile gender gap
    • 5
      The top local employers in Europe
    • News
    • Jobs
    • Funding
    • Talent
    • Events

    Devex is the media platform for the global development community.

    A social enterprise, we connect and inform over 1.3 million development, health, humanitarian, and sustainability professionals through news, business intelligence, and funding & career opportunities so you can do more good for more people. We invite you to join us.

    • About us
    • Membership
    • Newsletters
    • Advertising partnerships
    • Devex Talent Solutions
    • Post a job
    • Careers at Devex
    • Contact us
    © Copyright 2000 - 2025 Devex|User Agreement|Privacy Statement