THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VIII, Issue # 105, June 16, 2006
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WORLD BANK INCOMPETENCE & MALPRACTICE:
The Bank Should Get Out of Malaria Control,
& Do What It Was Created To Do
By Fiona Kobusingye-Boynes
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM, THE WORLD BANK, & INEFFECTIVE MALARIA CONTROL PROGRAMS: THE WORLD
BANK, UNDER THE INFLUENCE & CONTROL OF ANTI-PESTICIDE ENVIRONMENTALISTS & PENNY-PINCHING BUREAUCRATS &
POLITICIANS, REFUSES TO LEND MONEY FOR SUPPORT OF MALARIA CONTROL PROGRAMS IN POOR COUNTRIES USING THE
MORE EFFECTIVE ANTI-MALARIAL DRUGS & PESTICIDES -- THE WORLD BANK'S BAN ON ARTEMISIA-BASED COMBINATION
DRUGS & ON USE OF INDOOR DDT SPRAYING & INSECTICIDE-TREATED CURTAINS CONDEMNS MILLIONS IN AFRICA TO
ILLNESS & EARLY DEATH
FULL STORY:
I have been struck down by malaria dozens of times. The vomiting, high fevers, dehydration, headaches, joint pain, and
disorientation were beyond belief.
If doctors hadn’t helped me even when I couldn’t pay, I would have been dead long ago – like my son, two sisters and three
nephews, all victims of this vicious disease. Like the husbands and children of women who work with me, making beautiful
purses to earn money for malaria medicines. Like 50 of the 500 orphan children who attended the school that my husband
and I help sponsor – all dead in a single year!
It is an unspeakable tragedy. Malaria infects 400 million Africans every year, leaving them unable to work, attend school,
cultivate fields, care for their families, or build our nations. It costs Uganda over US$ 700 million annually in lost
productivity, millions of hours spent caring for sick children and parents, countless potential Einsteins, Beethovens and
Martin Luther Kings.
We could end this suffering and death, if we use every available weapon – not just insecticide-treated bednets, but
insecticides, too, especially DDT. Unfortunately, too many politicians, environmental activists, and bureaucrats promote
programs that don’t work and tell Africans they can’t use DDT, which keeps deadly anopheles mosquitoes out of our
homes for six months or more, with just one spraying on their inside walls.
Thankfully, U.S. President George W. Bush, the U.S. Congress, and the U.S. Agency for International Development have
begun spending more money – and using DDT and other insecticides in Uganda, Tanzania, and Angola. Other agencies are
also revising their policies and programs. But one is dragging its feet.
Six years ago, the World Bank promised to spend $ 300 - $ 500 million on malaria control in Africa. However, according to a
study in The Lancet, the Bank has bungled the job.
The malaria experts who conducted the study said the Bank actually spent perhaps $ 100 million worldwide, and cut the
number of recipient countries in half, and claimed progress where there were none. By counting eight months as a year, the
Bank made it look like its programs had suddenly slashed malaria cases by 60% in Brazil. Refusing to provide evidence to
support claims that are sharply contradicted by other data, it also said Bank programs had “dramatically” reduced India’s
malaria deaths in just one year.
It refuses to spend Bank money on DDT in Eritrea, where thousands die from malaria every year, even though this chemical
has reduced malaria by 75% in at least four African countries.
The Bank bought 100 million doses of chloroquine for use in India, where this drug fails to work 15% - 45% of the time – and
children die as a result. Just imagine the malpractice charges and criminal indictments that would result if doctors did
something like that in the United States. World Bank staff then argued that “chloroquine is 10 - 20 times cheaper” than
Artemisia-based combination drugs – when even Bank documents specifically acknowledge that “artemisinin-based drugs
are the only first-line anti-malarial drugs appropriate for widespread use that still work against chloroquine-resistant malaria
parasites.”
The study also states that the Bank eliminated its entire malaria staff, but says it now has “three full-time professionals
working on malaria” – for all of sub-Saharan Africa! This is completely inadequate and does nothing to alter the incompetent
policies that continue to sicken and kill Africans.
Another study found that indoor spraying with DDT slashed malaria rates by nearly 75% in just a few years in Madagascar’s
highlands. Indoor DDT spraying, combined with insecticide-treated curtains had similar results elsewhere in the country.
Despite this life-saving success, the World Bank and Roll Back Malaria have pressured Madagascar to “progressively phase
out DDT” and replace it with an “environmentally friendly” insecticide, even though no chemical has yet been found that is
nearly as effective as DDT. I can only conclude that, in their minds, environmental considerations and “international criticism”
about DDT take precedence over African lives.
Against all this and more damning evidence, the Bank’s Lancet response asserts that its “approach is driven by
results.” Just imagine what would happen to doctors and corporate CEOs who got such “results.”
The Bank’s Lancet response did get one thing right. It said that, compared to the Global Fund for the Prevention of
Malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, the Bank has a “comparative advantage in development economics, financing …
capacity building and … implementation support.”
Put another way, the Global Fund is more competent than the Bank in disease control, and more transparent about its funding
and results. It has superior staff, policies, programs, and therapies. And it gives grants, which are attractive to African
countries already saddled with debt – instead of loans like the Bank does.
Instead of pretending to be a disease expert, the World Bank should focus on its comparative advantages. It should build new
hospitals and clinics, get them electricity and clean water, support Global Fund malaria programs, and provide stipends for
doctors and nurses, to keep them from leaving Africa for countries where salaries are higher, and obstacles less overwhelming.
Let the Global Fund handle malaria control.
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has an opportunity to change this dismal situation, end the Bank’s shamefully defective
anti-malaria programs, refocus it to what the Bank does best, improve healthcare delivery, and save lives.
I’m not a doctor or politician. I’m just an African woman with a dream: that we finally end a disease that is wiping out the future
of Africa – our precious children. I truly hope Mr. Wolfowitz will rise to the occasion.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Science, Ethics, & Human Health
Fiona Kobusingye-Boynes is Coordinator of the Congress of Racial Equality’s Uganda office. A farmer and businesswoman,
she is a tireless advocate for human life, human rights, and effective anti-malaria programs. She can be contacted at
fiokob@yahoo.com
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