Africa Fighting Malaria
Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM) is an NGO based in Washington DC and South Africa which states it "seeks to educate people about the scourge of Malaria and the political economy of malaria control". The organization generally "promotes market based solutions and economic freedom as the best ways to ensure improved welfare and longer life expectancy in poor countries", according to their financial statement.[1] Founded in 2000 during the Stockholm Negotiations on Persistent Organic Pollutants, AFM's original focus was the promotion of a public health exemption for the insecticide DDT for malaria control. According to their current website, their mission is to "make malaria control more transparent, responsive and effective by holding public institutions accountable for funding and implementing effective, integrated and country-driven malaria control policies." AFM has been characterized by one observer as a "right-wing" "propaganda machine."[2]
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[edit] Overview and History
Formed in 2000, AFM's staff members have current or former links with a range of right-wing and free market think tanks including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Institute of Economic Affairs and Tech Central Station, organisations that are all critical of environment movements, as is AFM itself.
AFM promotes the pesticide DDT as one of the most effective means of fighting malaria. It asserts that global health organizations must be free to employ all available tools to fight malaria and that the limited use of DDT for spraying homes and hospitals is a powerful and necessary tool in this fight. Based on a document authored by the AFM's founder Roger Bate, critics argue that the group's motivation for promoting DDT has more to do with a careful crafted strategy to divide and discredit the environmental movement than it does with genuine concern for the health of Africans.[2][3][4][5]
AFM ran a "Save Children From Malaria" campaign designed to prevent the Stockholm Convention from banning the use of DDT. The coalition consisted of :
- Competitive Enterprise Institute
- Africa Fighting Malaria
- European Science and Environment Forum
- Liberty Institute
- Center for Dissemination of Economic Knowledge (CEDICE)
[edit] Efficacy
In June 2010, blogger Ed Darrell attempted to find AFM projects that actually reduce malaria infections in Africa. After examining AFM's own reports, tax records, and searching the internet, Darrell concluded that "the major purpose of AFM is to pay [founder] Roger Bate about $100,000 a year for part of the time, and pay [director] Richard Tren more than $80,000 a year for the rest of the time."[6]
[edit] Funding
On its website AFM states that it "receives its funding from a number of different sources, however because of the nature of our work we have a policy of not accepting funds from any government, the insectcides industry or the pharmaceutical industry".
Funders listed on the AFM website[7] include :
- Anglo American Chairman's Fund - a mining corporation.
- BHP Billiton plc - a mining corporation.
- The Earhart Foundation
- Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia
- The Ohrstrom Foundation
- The Thiel Foundation
- The Swordspoint Foundation
AFM has also received funding from[8]:
Other sources of funding:
[edit] Links to tobacco industry
Documents in the Legacy Tobacco Document Archive [1] show that in the planning stages AFM unsuccessfully sought the support of the tobacco industry, which hoped to divert resources from efforts by the World Health Organization to reduce smoking. [2] [3]. Investigative reporter Adam Sarvana describes AFM as a "front group".[3]
[edit] People
[edit] Staff
- Roger Bate - A fellow of the American Enterprise Institute and Competitive Enterprise Institute, and founder of the European Science and Environment Forum.
- Lorraine Mooney - Previously director of the European Science and Environment Forum.
- Francois Maartens
- Carlos Odora[10]
- Richard Tren - Director. Also a fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs, and analyst for the Free Market Foundation.
- Jasson Urbach - South African Director. Also affiliated with the Free Market Foundation
[edit] Board
- Roger Bate
- Richard Tren
- Lance Laifer - co-founder of Hegde Fund vs. Malaria & Pneumonia
- Gerry Ohrstrom - of the Ohrstrom Foundation, Inc. Also affiliated with the Reason Foundation, the Property and Environment Research Center, the International Policy Network, and the American Council on Science and Health.
- Donald Roberts - an emeritus professor of tropical public health at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
[edit] References
- ^ Financial Statements for Years End December 31, 2009 and 2008
- ^ a b Gutstein, Donald (November 24, 2009). Not a Conspiracy Theory: How Business Propaganda Hijacks Democracy. Key Porter Books. ISBN 1-55470-191-0.. Relevant section excepted at: Gutstein, Donald (January 22, 2010). "Inside the DDT Propaganda Machine". The Tyee. http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2010/01/22/DDTPropaganda/. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
- ^ a b Sarvana, Adam (May 28, 2009). "Bate and Switch: How a free-market magician manipulated two decades of environmental science". Natural Resources New Service. http://www.storiesthatmatter.org/20090602161/Natural-Resources-News-Service/bate-and-switch-how-a-free-market-magician-manipulated-two-decades-of-environmental-science.html. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
- ^ Rachel Carson, Mass Murderer?: The creation of an anti-environmental myth. Aaron Swartz, Extra!, September/October, 2007.
- ^ Rehabilitating Carson, John Quiggin & Tim Lambert, Prospect, May 2008.
- ^ Does Africa Fighting Malaria actually fight malaria?
- ^ AFM website: Funding
- ^ Exxon Secrets: Africa Fighting Malaria
- ^ Bate R, Tren R, Mooney L, et al. (2009). Pai, Nitika Pant. ed. "Pilot study of essential drug quality in two major cities in India". PLoS ONE 4 (6): e6003. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0006003. PMC 2695555. PMID 19547757. http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0006003.
- ^ allAfrica.com: Uganda: A Decent Standard of Living Will Help Eradicate Malaria (Page 1 of 1)
[edit] External links
- This article uses content from the SourceWatch article on Africa Fighting Malaria under the terms of the GFDL.
