President's Malaria Initiative: PEPFAR Phase II?

This morning, First Lady Laura Bush hosted a press conference to discuss the successes and next steps for the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI). According to the USAID press release, the malaria initiative is a $1.2 billion, five-year effort that was launched last year in three countries (Angola, Tanzania and Uganda) and will soon be expanded to include four more: Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal. The grand mission of the initiative is to reduce malaria deaths in these countries by 85 percent.Clearly modeled after the President’s other flagship initiative - PEPFAR - the PMI operates on many of the same basic principles including concentrating resources in a few countries to achieve significant and measurable results. However, this program replication is happening without a clear understanding of how well the model is working. PEPFAR clearly has achieved results, but is it an efficient use of resources? How does this model, including funding levels, results and impact, compare with other health financing programs? Is this the right future direction for foreign aid?