SMART Aid helps Ethiopia halve malaria deaths in two years

As ONE continues to advocate for SMART Aid, we’ll be bringing you examples on the ONE Blog of how effective development assistance, when implemented correctly, can save lives:

More than 50 million people in Ethiopia live in areas at risk of malaria. At the turn of the decade, the disease was killing more than 29,000 children a year. In 2005, the Ethiopian government unveiled an ambitious strategy, with donor support, to deliver two mosquito nets to every family at risk. By January 2008, 20.5 million bed nets had been delivered and a third of at-risk children were sleeping in safety (up from two per cent in 2005). Within three years of the start of the program, cases of malaria, and death rates, had been halved. This success was also thanks to delivery of effective malaria treatment, which can cost as little as US$2 per dose. Ethiopia is working to expand access to primary health services, particularly through the training of two health extension workers per village. Thirty thousand young women have been mobilized to transfer health skills to communities, a vital initiative in a country where health services often fail to reach those in isolated rural areas. The training of these health workers, and the provision of disease test kits and drugs, is paid for by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

-Nora Coghlan