Farmer receives U.N. appointment; Fight against Malaria in Africa

Aug 12 2009

Paul Farmer Appointed Deputy U.N. Special Envoy To Haiti

"Former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who is now the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, announced the appointment Tuesday of Harvard professor Paul Farmer, a pioneer in community health treatment for the world's poor, as his deputy," the Associated Press/mlive.com reports (8/11). Clinton said that Farmer's "credibility both among the people of Haiti and in the international community will be a tremendous asset" to their work in Haiti, according to the U.N. News Centre (8/11). Farmer had been considered to be the top candidate to head USAID until last week when "several Hill aides and people in the foreign aid community" said Farmer was no longer being tapped for the job, according to the Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report (8/6).

ECOWAS Agency To Develop Plan To Fight Malaria

A specialized Economic Community of Eastern African States (ECOWAS) Commission agency, the West African Health Organisation, is working on a plan to fight malaria in the region, Mohammed ibn Chambers, the president of the commission, said recently in Abuja, Nigeria, 234next.com reports. The plan comes after ECOWAS leaders met and agreed that countries in the zone are not likely to achieve Millennium Development Goal target unless the fight against malaria is scaled up (Onu, 8/11).