Plan to Improve Anti-Malaria Efforts

I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report.

The World Bank has announced a new plan to help fight malaria. The international lender says the fight against the disease has been too slow and uneven.

The goal is to expand access to anti-malarial drugs and preventions such as bed nets treated with chemicals that kill mosquitoes. Those insects spread the organism that causes an estimated five hundred million cases of malaria each year. Most are in southern Africa. The disease is getting more difficult to fight as the organism develops resistance to traditional treatments.

The new Global Strategy and Booster Program announced by the World Bank will include a special committee. Its job will be to make sure that anti-malaria efforts are part of lending programs.

World Bank officials estimate that five hundred million to one thousand million dollars in spending is possible over the next five years. The announcement took place on April twenty-fourth, Africa Malaria Day.

The World Health Organization says malaria kills more than one million people a year. Most of the victims are children under the age of five. Pregnant women are also at greater risk from the disease.

Africa pays a huge economic price for malaria. The W.H.O says the disease costs Africa about twelve thousand million dollars a year in lost productivity. The health agency says malaria has slowed development on the continent.

The new program announced by the World Bank also will increase help to other areas affected by malaria. Southeast Asia has the second highest death rate from the disease. About eight percent of malaria deaths happen in that part of the world.

Jean-Louis Sarbib is a top official at the World Bank. He calls the new plan "good for reducing human suffering and good for economic growth." When adults get sick, they have to stop working. Mister Sarbib points out that when children and teachers become infected, education also suffers as a result of malaria.

World Bank officials say they are building on lessons learned from malaria control programs in Brazil, Eritrea, India and Vietnam. Mister Sarbib says much progress has been in some places, but efforts have been slower and more limited than expected.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals aim to reduce deaths among children and pregnant women. Malaria control is one way to do that.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen.

Central American Free Trade Agreement Unclear

President Bush is urging Congress to pass the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA. Under CAFTA the United States would join the Dominican Republic and five Central American countries. The five are Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

The agreement deals with agriculture and all other trade. It requires the nations to reduce or end import taxes on most products. It also requires them to enforce their own labor and environmental laws.

Support among lawmakers in Washington is mixed. Democrats mostly oppose the agreement. So do a number of Republicans, who control Congress. But the president says Congress needs to pass the agreement to create jobs and strengthen democracy in the Americas.

The Bush administration says the United States has about thirty-two thousand million dollars a year in trade with CAFTA nations. The Office of the Trade Representative in Washington says United States farmers will gain new markets for their goods. And it says many Central American agricultural products like coffee and tropical fruit do not compete with American products.

In two thousand three, CAFTA nations imported about forty-one percent of their agricultural products from the United States. But that was down from fifty-four percent ten years ago.

CAFTA will immediately remove import taxes on grapefruit, apples, almonds and many other fruits and nuts. Other tariffs will be reduced over five, ten or fifteen years.

But CAFTA will not remove all tariffs. Sugar will remain protected in the United States. The agreement establishes sugar export limits for each country. The Trade Representative’s Office says the new limits represent less than two percent of United States sugar production.

The United States sugar industry opposes CAFTA. Other opponents include textile industry groups that worry about the risk of job losses. Labor groups say the free trade agreement does not protect American jobs or labor rights. And environmental groups say the agreement is weak on protecting the environment.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns praises CAFTA as good for American farmers. He says CAFTA nations can now place high tariffs on goods from the United States, yet escape duties on most of their own products.