U.S. President Barack Obama delighted malaria fighters with his State of the Union pledge to ask the Congress for more money to help end the disease. Now the administration has released its budget request — and more details about what it will do with an extra $200 million.
The additional funding would bring the President’s Malaria Initiative budget to $874 million for the next fiscal year, roughly a 30 percent increase over fiscal 2016. So what can $200 million buy you?
According to the administration, if Congress agrees to appropriate and shift funding as Obama requested last week, PMI would be able to: open programs in three new countries in West Africa — Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Cameroon — and expand its Burkina Faso program to the entire country; “accelerate elimination efforts” in Cambodia and Zambia; procure 13.7 million insecticide treated bed nets; and “accelerate research, development and evaluation of new malaria tools focused on better diagnostics, vector control and medicines.”
About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
