Malaria continues to be a significant public health burden in the 10 endemic countries of the Western Pacific Region. Morbidity and mortality have been greatly reduced in most countries in the last years. Unprecedented funding has become available to scale up malaria control interventions, and new tools for malaria control are being used. Several countries in the Region have reduced malaria to the point where they can change their programme goal from control to elimination.

Malaria control and elimination face a daunting array of challenges ranging from technical and programmatic issues to political and economic constraints, and from environmental changes to rapidly evolving donor/partner landscape and priorities. New threats have emerged in the Region, including signs of resistance to artemisinin (the current most effective malaria drug) and the wide availability of counterfeit medicines. While the overall epidemiological situation of malaria improves, some highly vulnerable population groups including women and children, ethnic minorities and mobile populations are neglected and need to be targeted more effectively. Malaria control approaches need to be better integrated and linked with overall health system strengthening. The increased political profile of malaria and external funding make this a time of great opportunity.

The WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific has updated the Regional Action Plan for Malaria Control and Elimination in the Western Pacific (2010–2015) to address key issues such as artemisinin resistance, counterfeit medicines and malaria elimination. The new framework calls for consolidating and building on achievements made in malaria control in the Region, and progressively eliminating malaria where possible. The plan is intended to be used for updating national plans, for monitoring national programmes and for mobilizing further internal and external resources.

At the end of the workshop the participants will have:

(1) reviewed and agreed upon regional malaria indicators;

(2) been updated and will have discussed recent developments and current special issues in malaria; and

(3) conducted a thorough review of the draft Regional Action Plan for Malaria Control and Elimination in the Western Pacific (2010-2015) and refined and endorsed the plan for subsequent adoption by the upcoming session of the Regional Committee.

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