Ghana: UNICEF to provide thousands of extra bed nets in fight against malaria

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has unveiled plans to spend an additional $1.7 million for insecticide-treated bed nets in Ghana as part of the fight against the spread of malaria in the West African country.

UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman announced the extra funding yesterday in Accra during a three-day visit to Ghana, in part to attend the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness.

Ms. Veneman said the bed nets are a simple and cost-effective intervention against malaria, which kills thousands of young Ghanaian children every year.

“In Africa, malaria is the number one killer of children under age five,” she said. “It is unacceptable that this preventable disease still claims the lives of so many.”

Speaking at the Accra forum, Ms. Veneman stressed the importance of coordinated aid delivery by UN agencies and the wider international community so that the assistance reaches the people most in need.

She said the battle was particularly important given there are less than eight years left to achieve the internationally agreed anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).