UNICEF grants $1.7 milion to Ghana for malaria efforts

Ghana will receive $1.7 million from UNICEF to increase the distribution of insecticide-treated nets among children younger than age five in the country's campaign against malaria, UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman said Wednesday at the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana, GNA/My Joy Online reports.

Veneman expressed concern over statistics indicating that the number of children younger than age five in Ghana who sleep under ITNs is less than the number of ITNs distributed in the country. She added that ITNs prevent approximately 80% of malaria cases in Africa by protecting the user from insect bites and killing mosquitoes. "Thousands of children under the age of five die from malaria each year in Ghana," Veneman said, adding that "it is unacceptable that this preventable disease still claims the lives of so many" (GNA/My Joy Online, 9/3).

During the forum, which took place from Sept. 2 to Sept. 4, government and civil society delegates discussed ways to increase effective use of development aid and create partnerships between donors and recipients (Mannak, Inter Press Service, 9/2). Veneman noted that with "less than eight years left" to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals -- which include reversing the spread of malaria by 2015 -- the "international community must work together to achieve sustainable results on the ground" (UNICEF release, 9/3).