To effectively win the fight against malaria and curb its debilitating effects on maternal health especially, the Corporate Alliance on Malaria in Africa (CAMA) is drumming for a synchronized collaboration across sectors.
This call was made when the Corporate Alliance on Malaria in Africa (CAMA) held its 2019 CAMA End of the Year members/partners meeting to discuss the various projects embarked upon during the course of the year
Africa has made substantial progress against malaria since 2000 and the private sector has contributed greatly to this progress. CAMA, however observes regrettably that malaria is still a public health challenge in the continent and there is more work to be done.
Speaking on behalf of CAMA at the partners meeting, Ochuko Keyamo-Onyige, Country Manager, Nigeria, GBCHealth CAMA notes that the organization has been at the vanguard of elimination of malaria for the past 13 years at a continental and country level. Corporate Alliance on Malaria in Africa (CAMA) has mobilized business action on malaria—recognizing that the assets of the private sector are a valuable resource in the fight to protect employees, communities and consumers from malaria.
She revealed further that CAMA’s strategic plan sets out the framework for action for the alliance for the next three years (2020 – 2022), giving members and collaborating organizations direction and inspiration to continue as leaders in mobilizing the private sector for malaria control and elimination in Africa.
To further shed light into this, the Head of Sustainability, Corporate Communications at Access Bank and co-çhair, CAMA, Omobolanle Victor-Laniyan, explained that the effectiveness of a private sector alliance lies in the quality and dedication of its member organizations.
“Over the years, CAMA has demonstrated its value by collating and integrating the efforts of multiple cross-sector stakeholders to scale up the overall impact. These collaborations have fostered powerful and targeted engagement throughout the communities that need it the most. It is ultimately crucial that the momentum continues, therefore, we beseech you to remain committed to our joint efforts against malaria in Africa,” she said.
“Giving how far we have gone as regards the gains we have achieved in addressing critical health challenges we shouldn’t be at the point we are with respect to malaria,” Laniyan said.
“If we work together as partners both the private sector and government we would be able to significantly address the issue and achieve our elimination goals with respect to malaria,” she further said.
She stated that advocacy, communication, and awareness around malaria are top priorities of CAMA in 2020.
The Corporate Medical Services Manager, Nigeria LNG Limited, Okuns Ohiosimuan while addressing pressmen also explained that malaria remains one of the most important diseases in the country because it still kills.
According to him, “if you count how many children miss school or how many workers misses work and how many women lose their pregnancy all because of malaria, you will see it is still very high.”
Ohiosimuan stated that the Federal Government has an excellent strategy in eliminating malaria within the next three years but the fund to drive it is lacking.
In view of this, he urged government at all levels to be more involved by investing in programs that address malaria issues.
“If you look at most of what is going on in the malaria space today, you we see that we are depending heavily on external funding, loans and now the private sector to push it,” he said.
The Corporate Alliance on Malaria in Africa (CAMA) is a GBCHealth-led initiative to drive partnerships for malaria elimination. Launches by Marathon Oil in 2006, the alliance is a unique coalition of companies from various industries, all with business interests in Africa. CAMA channels the collective force and voice of the private sector to drive impact on malaria in Africa from workplaces to region-wide initiatives.
