The United Nations Foundation’s Malaria Partnership works to prevent malaria deaths in Africa. Eliminating malaria deaths also contributes to Millennium Development Goals 4 (reducing child mortality) and 6 (combating HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria).

Malaria persists as a major health issue for nearly half the world’s population living in the poorest parts of the world.

• Each year, malaria infects 300-500 million people.

• Malaria kills between 1 and 3 million people each year.

• The majority of those killed are children under the age of five and pregnant women living in Africa.

• Malaria costs the African continent $12 billion a year in economic loss.

The UN Foundation’s Malaria Partnership links faith-based and other civil society partners to the goal of eliminating malaria deaths in the next generation and includes:

• Nothing But Nets – a grassroots education and constituency building effort that supports malaria prevention;

• A global campaign, anchored by the United Methodist Church and Lutheran World Relief, that aims to raise $200 million for malaria; and

• Support for key UN partnerships including the Measles Initiative (for bed net distribution) and Roll Back Malaria, a public-private partnership that establishes priorities and a global framework for combating malaria.

The Partnership receives support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.


As a founding member of the Measles Initiative, the UN Foundation supports integrated children’s health campaigns, which include measles and polio vaccinations, Vitamin A supplements, and de-worming medicine. Because of the heavy toll of malaria among children in Africa, long-lasting, insecticide-treated bed nets (LLINs) are also included in many campaigns, providing a comprehensive health delivery mechanism for children under the age of five and a training system for community health workers.

In 2002, as part of this process, a number of broader challenges facing malaria prevention and control were identified, including delivery infrastructure, product availability, and government coordination. The work of the UN Foundation then focused on helping the United Nations and many private and public stakeholders reduce these system challenges through a $1.5 million strategic grant in 2005.

By 2006, it became clear that LLINs were the most cost–effective way to prevent malaria. At this time, the Measles Initiative was distributing millions of nets per year and had the capacity to deliver more. As a result, the UN Foundation started raising funds from the U.S. public for LLINs. In May 2006, Rick Reilly, a former columnist for Sports Illustrated, became interested in malaria and helped us kick off what has become the successful Nothing But Nets campaign. The campaign has become a model for mass constituency building by:

• Partnering with the National Basketball Association, Major League Soccer, The United Methodist Church, VH-1, The Union For Reformed Judaism, Junior Chamber International, and others to raise awareness about malaria;

• Engaging 60,000 individuals in the campaigns efforts;

• Raising $18 million; and

• Successfully distributing more than 700,000 nets across Africa, including in Mali, Nigeria, Angola, and Chad.

The Campaign was a 2007 beneficiary of American Idol’s Idol Gives Back and has been featured in O Magazine, The New York Times, Marie Claire, and numerous state and local newspapers as result of an eight-city tour of the United States, which includes stops in Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, and Seattle.


The UN Foundation, with support and encouragement from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, initiated a search for malaria partners in 2005. The partner search led to the identification of several prospective partner organizations, specifically the faith-based constituencies of the United Methodist Church (UMC) and Lutheran World Relief (LWR).

On April 1, 2008, UNF Chairman Ted Turner joined leaders of the United Methodist Church and Lutheran World Relief to announce a new faith initiative aimed at eliminating malaria deaths within a generation. The UN Foundation will help lead efforts by the Lutherans and Methodists to mobilize their followers and raise $200 million ($100 million each) through effortsincluding:

• Educating and mobilizing the UMC and LWR’s combined, global constituency of more than 20 million people concerned about malaria and related diseases of poverty;

• Providing financial support to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (set up through the leadership of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan);

• Supporting malaria prevention and health system strengthening efforts; and

• Advancing the churches’ on-the-ground health missions.

United Methodists have been in mission around the globe, including Africa, for more than 160 years. With over 9 million members in the United States and 12 million worldwide, United Methodists are reaching the most impoverished and remote regions, building universities, hospitals, and clinics, and staffing, operating, and resourcing critical health delivery systems.

Lutheran World Relief is the humanitarian relief agency for both major U.S.-based Lutheran Church bodies, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS), which together comprise a constituency of 8 million in the U.S. and 70 million worldwide. The Lutheran Church’s international initiatives are rooted in ending poverty and providing integrated, holistic, and long-term approaches to solve individual and global problems.

The UN Foundation will provide staff support and expertise in public education, advocacy, resource mobilization, and constituency building. The UN Foundation will also help link the churches’ ongoing mission work with efforts by the Global Fund and the overall global framework for eliminating malaria deaths put in place by the UN and its partners.