LSDI

Funding

Initial funding for the project (1999) was by the Business Trust in South Africa. This was followed (2000/2001) by funding from MOZAL, the Department of Health in South Africa and the Ministry of Health in Mozambique. These sources continued to fund the project, with the Business Trust funding ended in June 2004. Calculated to June 2003, 70% of the funding for the project came from the private sector. Programme funding was wholly from the private sector in the first two years, decreasing to 50% with an increase in public financial support.

A proposal to the Global Fund requesting five years of funding was submitted in 2002 signed by the three participating countries and awarded in principle in February 2003 for an amount of approximately US $22 million over 5 years. Signing of the contract was in June 2003 and the initial disbursement came through on the 22 July 2003. The funding was initially allocated for two years with an option of renewal for a further 3 years.

There is increasing evidence that the benefits from malaria control for development far outweigh the costs of malaria control. The project design included a community based malaria control model to further decrease costs associated with control, and to measure these costs and the development benefits. Models of this nature are essential to promote development in Africa.

Over and above the funds allocated to support the core project, certain additional funds for the programme with respect to scientific evidence-based decision making have been secured, specifically to assist with drug efficacy evaluation, for the Malaria Information System and a spatial Decsion Support System.

Support for Project

This project and its underlying concept of creating an area conducive to development is receiving increasing support as is the relevance of a regional approach to control:

Roll Back Malaria, an executive programme of the World Health Organization, with the objective of halving malaria mortality in 10 years, has listed the project as one of three examples in this regard in the world.
A task force on malaria was set up by the SADC Health Ministers to encourage inter-country collaboration and the LSDI malaria project is being viewed as a potential model for the region.
Due to the negative impact of malaria on the MOZAL development in Mozambique, the company is supporting this project. During the 1999 malaria season, the company recorded approximately 3500 malaria cases out of a workforce of approximately 9000 with a minimum down time of 3 days. This cost is in itself considerable and excludes costs relating to evacuation and death due to malaria.
The World Health Organisations programme, Tropical Disease Research, recently funded a 5 year (R2.2 million per annum) project to investigate drug resistance in the malaria parasite and the efficacy of combination therapy in this regard within the LSDI malaria project.
Harvard Business School (Center for International Development) under the leadership of Dr Jeffrey Sachs is collaborating with the project. A joint proposal between Dr Sachs and the Dr Sharp, an RMCC has been developed and submitted towards securing funding to assess the economic benefits of the project at the community, business and macro economic levels in all three countries.

Malaria and Tourism