Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Nick Clegg to tell UN summit Britain will halve malaria deaths in Africa

I may be in New York, but I have to read the website of the dear old Guardian to know what is going on:

Britain will lead the fight against malaria, one of the world's biggest killers of children, the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, will tell the UN summit in New York tomorrow. He will pledge to halve deaths from the disease in 10 African countries.

Clegg will announce an increase in UK funds for malaria from £150m a year to £500m by 2014 in his closing speech to world leaders discussing progress towards the millennium development goals.

The UK government is pushing for greater efforts in two areas: the health of women and babies, which will be the subject of a strategy launched by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, tomorrow, and malaria, which takes a big toll on both.

Certainly, Andrew Mitchell was keen to turn the debate on health to the subject of malaria yesterday evening. And this article confirms the view that the Guardian's Larry Elliott had been well briefed.

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