Getting Practical in Controlling Malaria
Many international assistance programs fail because they are badly designed and/or too complicated. The result is that the poor don’t get the help they need, and taxpayers in rich countries lose confidence in the use of their aid funds.
A case in point has been malaria control. If rich countries adopt simpler and more practical strategies to help Africa fight malaria, they can save millions of Africans while building enthusiastic support among their citizens.
Malaria is a killer disease transmitted by a specific species of mosquitoes. It depends on warm temperatures, and thus is largely a tropical malady. Africa turns out to be especially unlucky, because it has a combination of high temperatures and the mosquitos that are likely to transmit the disease. As a result, Africa accounts for 90% of all malaria deaths in the world – including roughly two million children per year.