Your Royal Highnesses, Heads of Government, Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen.
I am honored to join you here today at this Malaria Summit. It is only appropriate that we speak about Malaria at this juncture given its importance to the health of our people. It comes in a critical time when the global community focus is on international peace and security, Malaria is however another form of threat to the health and livelihood of our people and therefore must remain as a priority in our agenda.
Over the past decade and a half, my government has implemented an ambitious malaria control and elimination program. One that has been carefully designed to also achieve broader health benefits through systems strengthening and extended cooperation program.
My government has pursued this vast program of elimination of Malaria progressively throughout all the provinces in Vanuatu which include distribution of Long-lasting nets countrywide. Access to diagnosis and treatment has been ensured in all health facilities.
This work, supported by donor-partners, and by extensive community engagement, has achieved remarkable results.
-In 2017, malaria elimination was achieved in most provinces, with no local cases since 2014;There have been great progress made in terms of the elimination program with no deaths reported in Vanuatu since 2012.
By 2028, Vanuatu aims to be completely malaria free.
Today, I am delighted to be endorsing on behalf on my government the APLMA (‘apple-mah’) Leaders Elimination Roadmap to reaffirm this commitment.
With external funding declining, the conference today must make a new shared effort to eliminate malaria globally.
We are committed to accelerating progress. However, for small island states like Vanuatu, we will continue to rely on strong support from partners like the Government of Australia and the Global Fund. We call for greater united effort and increased cooperation as together we will defeat malaria.