THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VIII, Issue # 211, November 1, 2006
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
CIDA'S MALARIA MELTDOWN:
Why Is the Canadian International Development Agency
Perpetuating Malaria Deaths?
By Dr. Amir Attaran
CANADIAN FOREIGN AID POLICY & MALARIA CONTROL IN AFRICA: THE CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS & THE ANTI-INSECTICIDE
MOVEMENT, IS RELUCTANT TO FUND THE USE OF EFFECTIVE WEAPONS IN AFRICA'S FIGHT AGAINST MALARIA --
ALLOWING POLITICAL IDEOLOGY & PRESSURE POLITICS TO SQUEEZE DDT OUT OF MALARIA CONTROL PROGRAMS, THE
CIDA PURSUES POLICIES THAT HELP KEEP MALARIA RATES UNNECESSARILY & UNCONSCIONABLY HIGH IN AFRICA
FULL STORY:
“The poor,” Jesus Christ said, “will always be with us.” He did not say anything about whether the poor would suffer
always from malaria. The inaction of the Canadian International Development Agency suggests that they will.
Malaria is a dreadful disease. Annually, it kills more children in Africa than on any other continent, and about 1 million
children worldwide. When it does not quite kill, it has a repulsive efficiency to stunt children’s growth and damage their
brains. Because it also targets pregnant women, it often kills mothers and orphans the children. The sacrifice of so much
life, security, and brainpower in the next generation is foolish, and evades palpable understanding. To imagine just part of
it, visualize seven Boeing 747s – the biggest plane in the sky – full of children, crashing every day.
Yet with the proper, inexpensive tools, like household insecticides and treated bednets, malaria is a mostly preventable
disease. In the unlucky cases where prevention fails, medicines can treat it, one hundred percent. Nobody – absolutely
nobody – need die of malaria.
So why is CIDA not buying those tools, and shunning the Canadians who want to help?
This past February, CIDA Minister Josée Verner said she would give UNICEF $9 million to buy bednets for Ethiopia. That
sounds good, but what Ms. Verner failed to mention is that this grant comes as CIDA appears to be abandoning an earlier,
$26 million bednet program led by the Canadian Red Cross. Her happy-sounding commitment, really, is a swinging budget
cut.
As a biologist and lawyer who studies the problems of the world’s poorest people, I have watched the politics and science
of malaria programs for a decade. Never have I found a bednet program that is as efficient at saving children’s lives as that
of the Canadian Red Cross. The reason for their success is simple: unlike UNICEF, which in Ethiopia plans to sell bednets to
families whose household income is often only a dollar a day, the Canadian Red Cross gives them away free.
This is really true: UNICEF’s elite, highly paid, tax-exempt staff have turned humanitarianism into a business of selling
things to people who have no money. Predictably, it doesn’t work. Five years after spearheading a campaign to put 60% of
Africa’s children under properly treated bednets, UNICEF had to admit that only 3% of African children are covered.
Now compare that to the Canadian Red Cross, which, in Togo, cleverly linked its bednet giveaway to pediatric health services.
In one tightly choreographed week – not 5 years – the Red Cross distributed 900,000 bednets, enough for 100% of Togo’s
children under 5.
With such breathtaking results, you might imagine CIDA would be eager to continue, and even expand, the Canadian Red
Cross funding before their final bednet giveaway in Sierra Leone next month. But you would be wrong. In far more than just
malaria, CIDA’s management is so consumed in processes and in reacting to the latest trends in international aid that
evaluating results is subordinate. The disconnect is so profound that CIDA sometimes overlooks even huge successes, as in
Togo.
This is possibly why, though the Canadian Red Cross asked – begged – CIDA to continue its funding, CIDA, eighteen
months later, still has not made a decision. What a shabby way to treat these Canadian heroes, and Africa’s children.
CIDA’s torpor to what works seems almost total. Last month, the World Health Organization decided that it had been wrong
to let politics squeeze a famous insecticide, DDT, out of malaria control programs. Courageously, WHO admitted its error and
called for DDT’s return. I started the global campaign eight years ago that led the WHO to reinstate DDT, and though
unpopular, I did so because, scientifically and ethically, it is a no-brainer.
As WHO recommends, DDT is sprayed on the insides of homes only. It therefore causes no harm to the outside environment,
as it protects a home's inhabitants from malaria-carrying mosquitoes for up to a year at a time. Where DDT works (it is not the
right choice for everywhere), it is spectacularly effective. With DDT and the right medicines, South Africa beat back malaria
cases 89% in one year, and deaths 97% in four years.
Think if it: 97% fewer dead children and women. That is why even former opponents, such as Greenpeace or the World Wildlife
Fund, now agree DDT may be used for malaria control.
CIDA’s excellent health staff understand this, and agree that DDT needs an urgent second look. But troublingly, the
organization is not reacting. CIDA says it is “very interested in better understanding how the WHO’s new policy can best be
operationalized.” But when the WHO’s tireless malaria chief, Dr Arata Kochi, came to town pleading for funds to make DDT
spraying operational, CIDA sent him away penniless.
If that counts as CIDA being “very interested,” one wonders what being disinterested looks like.
As of this week, CIDA’s spokeswoman says the agency has “no plans to purchase DDT.” CIDA also says it “does not
normally engage in the direct procurement of drugs or products” – that is, CIDA does not buy the actual tools of malaria
control. Sometimes CIDA funds partners, like the Canadian Red Cross, to buy those products, but that funding is snarled in
unending discussions. Meanwhile, CIDA promises it “will work with … partner organizations to advance [its] understanding.”
With 2,700 children dying each day, I hope CIDA advances its understanding soon. Ms. Verner and the Prime Minister could
help by instructing its management to bet more on CIDA’s and the Canadian Red Cross’ achievement in the world’s greatest
bednet program, and to fund WHO’s urgent call for DDT. A ten year commitment of $100 million annually would be huge by
CIDA standards, but justified.
With heroes like the Canadian Red Cross on our doorstep, CIDA should not be penny-pinching, but helping them to save
poor children, or perhaps to bring home a Nobel prize, as is deserved. The poor will still be with us, but Canada can help
them live better, healthier, longer lives.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Canada: America's Northern Neighbor & Ally
Africa South of the Sahara -- Black Africa
Science, Ethics, & Human Health
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dr. Amir Attaran, an expert in malaria and global health issues, is Canada Research Chair in Law, Population, Health and
Global Development Policy, at the University of Ottawa and a former Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund lawyer.
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume VIII, 2006
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues