Parliamentary Caucus for Health Financing: MPs map out robust strategy to boost anti-malaria fight.

The plan was validated during a meeting at the National Assembly on Friday, June 13. 

It was also attended by representatives from the Ministry of Public Health, the National Malaria Control Programme, NMCP; National Blood Transfusion Service, NBTS, and Impact Santé Afrique, ISA.

According to data from public health ministry, there was nearly 3 million confirmed malaria cases reported in hospitals with over 2,000 resulting deaths in 2024. 

In 2022 also, the malaria prevalence rate reached 26.1% up on previous years, underlining the urgent need for action.

With Cameroon counted amongst the 11 most affected countries in the world by malaria, the disease remains one of the major public health problems in country, with repercussions on the lives of children under five and pregnant women.

In this light, the members of the parliamentary caucus together with their partners converged to streamline an action plan capable of amplifying state efforts in the fight against the dangerous disease. 

The action plan validated June 13 was hinged on leading advocacy actions for an increase in State budget for the sectorial ministry leading the fight against malaria and other diseases in the country. 

According to the Parliamentary Caucus for Health Financing in Cameroon, Hon Njume Peter Ambang, it is important for the State to respect the 15% budgetary allocation prescribed by the Abuja Declaration and restated during the Yaounde Declaration of 2024. 

“We are working in collaboration with the government to see the need for the government to put a lot of emphasis on the domestic resource mobilization because with the US now cutting more than 70% of what we used to receive, the gap is so wide. We can no longer depend so much on donors,” Hon Njume said.

The lawmaker also expressed the need for civil society, private sector and other sector to join forces in synergy with government to be able to effectively fight against malaria and other diseases in Cameroon.

The Parliamentary Caucus for Health Financing in Cameroon is the Cameroonian chapter of a Pan-African parliamentary initiative called the Coalition of Parliamentarians Engaged to End Malaria in Africa, COPEMA.

COPEMA’s mission is to contribute to the elimination of malaria in Africa by strengthening political commitment, coordination between parliamentarians and mobilisation of the necessary domestic resources.

On her part, a member of the parliamentary caucus, Hon Ngoko Marie Louise, said the discussions with stakeholders were pertinent. 

“…it was important for all the different stakeholders to come together so that we could cross-reference information and data in order to make useful and sound decisions,” she said.

Regarding the action plan, she explained that: “We are currently facing, for example, the need to mobilise funding at the national level. So, the role of the caucus at this time will be one of advocacy at the government level, but at the same time also to raise awareness so that during the budgetary policy debate, the administrations can already anticipate and present proposals for what they need so that we can really get by with budgets that have actually decreased. It's an open secret”.

Enter NMCP Permanent Secretary

In a presentation during the meeting, the Permanent Secretary of National Malaria Control Programme, Dr Albert Zeh, stressed that malaria remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Cameroon. 

He said as at the end of 2024, the epidemiological situation of malaria showed that 26.9% of hospital consultation were confirmed malaria case.

In addition, he said out of the 24,652 deaths recorded in health facilities in the country in 2024, some 2,016 (8.2%) were malaria-related deaths. 

He, however, noted that the trend in malaria cases recorded in health facilities has been declining since 2022 with a decrease of approximately 13,000 cases in 2024 compared to 2023.

He also pointed that children under the age of 5 and pregnant women continue to be the most affected groups with incidences of 165.5 cases per 1,000 children under 5 and 133.3 cases per 1,000 pregnant women, compared to 52.8 cases per 1,000 people over 5.

In response to the burden of malaria, he said government using the High Burden-High Impact approach, developed the National Strategic Plan for the Fight against Malaria 2024-2028. 

The plan which is anchored on four pillars, has the goal of contributing to improving the health of the populations by reducing the burden of the disease and the socioeconomic burden of malaria.

The implementation of the plan which began in 2024 and will run till 2028, seeks to reduce malaria-related morbidity and mortality by at least 75% compared to 2015 levels.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3477 of Wednesday June 18, 2025