Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Bill Gates, Prince Charles speak at Malaria Summit in London

Gifted Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a speech at the Malaria Summit on Wednesday, 18th of April,in London, England. The Malaria Summit was held to urge Commonwealth leaders to commit to halve cases of malaria across the Commonwealth within the next five years with a target to 650,000 lives.

American businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates also gave a speech at the Malaria Summit, as did Prince Charles, Prince of Wales.

At the summit, a landmark £2.9bn ($4.1bn) commitment was made to invest in ridding the Commonwealth of malaria.

More than a dozen heads of State and government, ministers from 19 Commonwealth countries, scientists and private sector and international organizations were at the event. They made significant financial and political commitments that will catalyse progress towards beating malaria.

According to allafrica.com, here’s a breakdown of the funds committed:

• £1.45bn ($2bn) total domestic co financing from malaria affected countries to the Global Fund
• £700m ($1bn) new funding from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• £160m ($230million) in newly announced commitments from the UK Government – to support Global Fund, R&D, and work in Nigeria
• Announcements from private sector companies investing in R&D to develop new tools to fight malaria such as £175m ($251m) GSK and £70m ($100m) Novartis
• £100m ($142m) from Wellcome Trust to invest in malaria R&D over the next 5 years
• Nigerian government commitment of $318.7m – including $300m from the World Bank, Islamic Development Bank and African Development Bank and $18.7million from the President’s Fund to leveraged an additional $37million from the Global Fund, allowing the distribution of 15 million mosquito nets and protect 30 million people

See more photos from the event below.