Consolidating gains and accelerating efforts to control and eliminate malaria in developing countries, particularly in Africa, by 2030 A/RES/72/309 Recognizing that, despite the fact that increased global and national investments in malaria control have yielded significant results in decreasing the burden of malaria in many countries, and that some countries are moving towards the elimination of malaria, many countries continue to have unacceptably high burdens of malaria and, in order to reach the internationally agreed development goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals, must rapidly increase malaria prevention and control efforts, which rely heavily on medicines and insecticides whose utility is continuously threatened by the development of resistance to antimalarial agents, as well as resistance of mosquitoes to insecticides and their shift to outdoor biting and resting, Aware that recent successes in prevention and control are fragile and can be maintained only with sufficient and sustained national and international investment to fund global malaria control efforts fully, Regretting the high number of people still without access to medicines, and underscoring that improving access to medicines could save millions of lives every year, Recognizing the serious challenges relating to substandard and falsified medical products, poor malaria diagnostics and poor quality of vector control products, Expressing concern about the continued morbidity, mortality and debility attributed to malaria, and recalling that more efforts are needed as countries implement the Sustainable Development Goals and focus on targets set out in the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030 and the Action and Investment to Defeat Malaria 2016–2030 plan to reduce malaria mortality rates by 90 per cent by 2030, Aware that a concerted and coordinated global effort will be needed to substantially reduce malaria transmission, morbidity and mortality by 2030 and achieve the targets set in the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030, Recognizing that progress can be accelerated through a multi-pronged response by expanding currently available life-saving interventions, making malaria a higher political priority and considering malaria control as an integrated part of the health system, increasing accountability, strengthening regional and cross-border collaboration, and ensuring that the development and use of new tools and approaches are maximized, Gravely concerned about the health burden of malaria worldwide, with 216 million cases and 445,000 deaths reported in 2016 alone, 11 in particular in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 91 per cent of the deaths occur, affecting mostly young children, Emphasizing the importance of strengthening health systems to effectively sustain malaria control and elimination efforts and enable appropriate responses to other health issues and emergencies, including investment in entomology and vector control for human resources and infrastructures, Recognizing the critical need to strengthen malaria surveillance and data quality in all regions where malaria is endemic in order to accurately measure progress, combat resurgence and target resources, particularly in the face of growing resistance to treatment and preventive measures, and recognizing also that addit ional financing is needed to strengthen national and regional surveillance systems and to support the sharing and analysis of best practices to address urgent programmatic challenges, improve monitoring and evaluation, and conduct regular financial plannin g and gap analyses, Acknowledging that the expansion of malaria interventions can be used as an entry point for strengthening health systems more broadly, including maternal and __________________ 11 4/12 See World Health Organization, World Malaria Report 2017. 18-15052