History
The UK Coalition against Malaria (UK CAM) is part of Mobilising for Malaria, a new advocacy initiative that aims to raise awareness of malaria in Europe and throughout Africa to bring greater resources to bear against the disease.
The Mobilising for Malaria Programme was officially launched by GlaxoSmithKline's African Malaria Partnership established in 2001, and the Malaria Consortium, at the 4th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Conference in Yaoundé, Cameroon in November 2005.
Learning from the success of advocacy initiatives and civil society mobilisation that brought HIV and AIDS to the attention of world leaders and have had a significant impact on the international policy agenda, Mobilising for Malaria aims to similarly engage politicians, the media and civil society in order to secure political support and increase resource allocations for malaria through coalitions in various countries around the world.
In Europe, the programme has so far focused on the UK, France and Belgium - the countries with the strongest ties to Africa. In Africa, coalitions have already been formed in Ethiopia and Cameroon, and Benin is expected to be the next African country to establish a coalition.
UK CAM was initially formed as a working group made up of organisations and individuals working in or concerned about malaria. A number of one-to-one meetings were held to outline the objectives of the Coalition before calling the whole group together. The first meeting held on the 9th February 2006 was well attended by a cross section of organisations and individuals.
The meetings of the working group led to the formation of the Coalition which was officially launched in June 2006 at the Houses of Parliament by Stephen O'Brien the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Malaria Group and Jon Snow.
