Creative Talent and Corporate Clout Join Forces to Fight Malaria

Main Category: Tropical Diseases
Article Date: 30 Jan 2005 - 8:00 PDT

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Malaria control an essential investment, agree executives -

DAVOS, Switzerland - Celebrities and industry leaders today announced a major new collaboration to boost the fight against malaria, starting with a star-studded, two-day concert event in Dakar, Senegal on 12-13 March 2005 to support the Roll Back Malaria Partnership.

At the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, internationally renowned Senegalese singer, songwriter and composer Youssou N'Dour announced his commitment to acting as Special Envoy for the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, a broad group of countries and international entities united in the fight against malaria in Africa and around the world.

He was joined by executives from the United Nations Foundation, Sumitomo Chemical and Exxon Mobil Corporation, who announced their support for AFRICA LIVE: The Roll Back Malaria Concert, a two-day music event featuring 20 top African artists led by N'Dour and including established stars such as Baaba Maal, Salif Keita, Orchestra Baobab, Manu Dibango, Ali Farka Touré and Khaled as well as rising young African talents. The event will reach an estimated 40,000 spectators and an additional audience of one billion worldwide via television, DVD, radio and CD, celebrating the continent's creative energy and bringing a message of empowerment and hope for tackling its major scourge: malaria.

"This concert will reach hundreds of millions of people, sharing the vitality of African music and inspiring them to imagine the heights to which our nations can rise if we can beat malaria. And we can beat it: we have the tools, we have the knowledge. All we need is for the world to come together to make it happen," said N'Dour, the creative force behind the event, which will also see the premiere of a global "anti-malaria anthem".

The concert's main sponsor is Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, inventor of the Olyset long-lasting insecticidal net technology. Sumitomo President and Chief Executive Officer Hiromasa Yonekura said: "Successive leaders of Sumitomo have adhered to the same basic business principle: Sumitomo's enterprise should not only benefit Sumitomo itself but also contribute to promoting the welfare of the country and of the people. Africa is a vital region of the world with enormous potential for development. Olyset nets save lives and make a positive and lasting impact, reducing poverty and promote sustainable development. I am proud that my company has joined in sponsoring this event designed to boost the fight against the horrible epidemic."

Also sponsoring the concert is Exxon Mobil Corporation. "As a business with oil and gas activities in more than 20 African nations, ExxonMobil is well aware of the often devastating impact of malaria in Africa. We support numerous projects and initiatives to help the fight against malaria in the broader community and we have a comprehensive malaria control program to protect our workforce. We are proud to sponsor this unique advocacy event and to assist in harnessing private sector energies and resources to keep malaria high on the global agenda," said Dr. Steven Phillips, ExxonMobil Medical Director, Global Issues and Projects.

The key driver of the collaboration is the United Nations Foundation, which builds innovative public-private partnerships to meet the most pressing health, humanitarian, socioeconomic, and environmental challenges. UN Foundation Chairman Ted Turner explained: "A child under 5 dies from malaria every 30 seconds-that's about 3,000 a day. We can prevent malaria with nets that cost $7 or less and cure it with drugs costing $3 or less; that's money well spent."

AFRICA LIVE: The Roll Back Malaria Concert was conceived by N'Dour and documentary film director Mick Csáky of UK independent television production company Antelope. The concert will be staged by N'Dour's production company Xippi and the whole event will be exclusively recorded for television, DVD and radio by Antelope and Idéale Audience.

A two-hour documentary film about AFRICA LIVE: The Roll Back Malaria Concert, directed by Csáky, is being made for worldwide television distribution, along with a DVD version, four one-hour concert recordings, a radio series and a half-hour educational film about malaria.

The two-hour documentary has been sold to the BBC (UK), Arte (France/Germany), France 3 (France), YLE (Finland) and SVT (Sweden), with deals pending in the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and Switzerland. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-a Roll Back Malaria partner-will ensure that this documentary and the half-hour educational film will be made available free of charge to television broadcasters throughout the African continent.

Additional financial and in-kind support will be provided by global pharmaceutical company Novartis, the Government of Senegal, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization and other Roll Back Malaria partners.

For more information, please contact:

Roll Back Malaria Partnership Secretariat
Pru Smith Lauren Ptito Anderson
+41 22 791 4586 (Geneva) +41 22 791 2167 (Geneva)
smithp@who.int ptitol@who.int

UN Foundation
Kevin Starace
+1 202 778 3544 (Washington DC)
kstarace@unfoundation.org

Youssou N'Dour Foundation
Lisa Goldman
+1 347 534 6416 (Mobile-Davos)
+1 646 674 2744 (New York)
lisago@well.com

Sumitomo Chemical
Susumu Yoshida
+41 81 427 5300 (Davos)
+81 3 5543 5153 (Tokyo)
yoshidas@sc.sumitomo-chem.co.jp

ExxonMobil
Lauren Kerr
+1 972 444 1107 (Dallas)
lauren.a.kerr@exxonmobil.com
Dr Steven Phillips
+1 571 277 3488 (Mobile-Davos)

Antelope/Idéale Audience TV production
Katharina von Flotow
+ 41 79 706 86 48 (Geneva)
kvonflotow@bluewin.ch

About the Roll Back Malaria Partnership

To provide a coordinated global approach to fighting malaria, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership was launched in 1998 by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank.

Coordinated by a small secretariat led by Executive Secretary Prof. Awa Marie Coll-Seck, the Partnership now brings together malaria-endemic countries, their bilateral and multilateral development partners, the private sector, non-governmental and community-based organizations, foundations, and research and academic institutions around the common goal of halving the global burden of malaria by 2010.

Distributed for the Roll Back Malaria Partnership by

Peter Robbs Consultants Ltd
News Media and Editorial
T: +44 1480 465328
F: +44 1480 492724
E: peter.robbs@ukonline.co.uk

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