MAKALA JUU YA MARALIA: HALI YA MAISHA NA PESA YANASABABISHA WATU WAWE NA FIKRA POTOFU KUTUMIA VIBAYA VYANDARUA VYA KUJIKINGA NA MARALIA.

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Some Fisheries , doing fishing activities using Mosquito net.

The Times - UK

By Dominic Kennedy, Investigations Editor

24 July 2015

Mosquito nets provided by British taxpayers to fight malaria are being used to make wedding dresses. Impoverished, hungry villagers are also using the insecticide-coated mesh to build chicken coops, catch fish and strain bananas. Some put the nets around anthills to catch white ants, a traditional snack.

The financing body, The Global Fund To Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, claims to have distributed 548 million nets to stop the deadly disease but the problem of misuse has become so serious that some African countries have threatened to jail offenders.

The troubles are a long way from the organisation’s base in Geneva, where it is paying $13 million a year to lease offices. It has commissioned a showpiece, architect-designed headquarters with a 360-space car park in the Swiss city.

Little more than 18 months ago, the fund was lavished with hundreds of millions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money by Whitehall officials keen to meet David Cameron’s target of spending 0.7 per cent of annual national income on aid. It is the sort of figure that might make ordinary eyes water.

The global fund was created in 2001 by G8 leaders including Tony Blair, who has become a multimillionaire since stepping down as prime minister. It has also gained support from entertainers such as U2’s Bono and Carla Bruni, the musician and wife of Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president of France.

a conRather than providing health services directly, it funnels money to selected organisations that work in afflicted countries. Mosquito nets have been chosen as a key weapon against malaria since they are said to halve the risk of infection in children.

In Uganda, where the disease is the country’s main killer, taking 4,000 lives a year, the fund has helped to provide 21 million nets for almost complete coverage. Yet even when the British high commissioner, Alison Blackburne, presented the guards to President Museveni in a ceremony marking Britain’s financial contribution, the risk of them going astray was appreciated.

“It’s a shame that people are misusing mosquito nets to trap white ants and as fish nets,” the president said. “Those doing this should know that Luzira [maximum security prison] still has space.” In Lake Tanganyika, surrounded by four African nations, mosquito nets have been used for fishing so extensively that stocks are feared threatened. The fine mesh catches fry before they can breed.

A study on the Tanzanian lake shores last year found that many villagers used mosquito nets for fishing even though they knew it was illegal.

Malaria rates among children in the region have stuck at the high rate of 26 per cent since 2007, suggesting that the widespread distribution of nets has failed to have the desired effect. The operators of a floating clinic there have said they are troubled by the health risk to villagers drinking lake water containing the nets’ insecticide, which is carcinogenic. The pesticide is highly toxic to aquatic life, although 12 million people depend on fish from the lake as their main source of protein.

The Department for International Development trebled Britain’s donations to the global fund.

An inquiry report by the National Audit Office said Mr Cameron’s 0.7 per cent “target was a consideration when the department decided on the size” of its pledge.

A spokesman for the department defended the decision to give money quickly.

“It decided that front-loading its contribution would have a number of policy benefits,” he said. “These included: enabling the global fund to accelerate activity and results; maintaining UK leadership; and increasing the chances of leveraging in larger contributions from other donors.”

The global fund had faced a grave money shortage in 2011 amid reports of infighting and concerns about fraud. When the House of Commons international development select committee held an inquiry, Jeremy Lefroy MP, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on malaria and neglected tropical diseases, expressed concerns about the distribution of medicines and nets. He said that in some countries “the drugs are stockpiled in the capital cities”.

He added: “They may have been paid for through the global fund but they are not being used effectively.”

Gabriel Jaramillo, a distinguished banker brought in as temporary general manager to rescue the fund, told MPs: “With enough will and resources, we could potentially end malaria as a public health problem by 2015.”

A spokesman for the global fund told The Times: “Malaria is still a public health problem. It is endemic in 97 countries, causing nearly 200 million cases.”

There are still 584,000 deaths a year from malaria. The spokesman said: “Gabriel Jaramillo was a skilled financial turnaround manager, not a public health expert. In that instance he misspoke.”

On his departure, Mr Jaramillo warned the fund that its governance procedures were inadequate.

The fund spokesman said malaria net misuse was often caused by poverty and worries about food. He said: “In poor areas, people will sometimes use whatever is available for multiple purposes. Net distribution campaigns are accompanied by education about malaria, and how to use nets properly.”

A Department for International Development spokesman said mosquito nets had made a tremendous impact in the fight against malaria.

“The fund has robust systems in place to ensure they are used as intended, including regular spot checks,” he said. “We have seen no evidence of systematic misuse.”

Mr Lefroy told The Times the fund had made considerable improvements and he urged other countries to pay their pledged donations.

An internal investigation into the organisation’s grants to Nigeria showed the country’s National Malaria Control Programme submitted at least 73 fictitious airline ticket claims and bought overpriced vehicles and computers. The Society for Family Health, which works with Nigeria’s poor, overcharged the fund for 426,000 mosquito nets.

Such largesse does not appear to have dampened the comforts of Geneva, however. In 2010, the fund entered into a contract with a property developer, promising to lease most of the space in a new £67 million building to be known as the Health Campus. The fund spokesman said the new building would reduce its rent and utilities costs from $13 million to $7.5 million a year; or as they might say in Whitehall, small enough for Britain to pay 113 times over.