The African Leaders Malaria Alliance, a coalition of the African Union Heads of State and Government, was established in 2009 to launch a coordinated and effective response to the scourge of malaria.

ALMA was created in recognition of the:

• importance of malaria as a major health and development threat, especially in Africa
• responsibility of African leaders to spearhead the fight against malaria and other major public health and development challenges on the continent
• need for collective action to achieve continental malaria control goals
• need for African leaders to prominently participate in the global movement to halt the occurrence of malaria

In response to the request from the founding ALMA chair, His Excellency President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete on the need for a robust mechanism to strengthen accountability, transparency, action and follow-up, particularly on malaria commitments on the continent, the ALMA secretariat developed the continental ALMA Scorecard for Accountability and Action in 2011.

The scorecard has been successfully used at the Head of State and Government level as an advocacy and accountability tool. The scorecard approach has been adapted to support country-owned national, sub-national and community scorecard tools to:

• track priority interventions and investments
• identify gaps
• institute and follow-up on actions

To date, we have supported 40 countries across Africa to develop and introduce their own country level scorecard tools for malaria, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH), neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), nutrition and community quality of care.

ALMA has distinguished itself in its role of enhancing accountability at the highest national levels. As such, our role has expanded based on requests from Heads of State and Government to also support progress in RMNCAH, nutrition and the neglected tropical diseases elimination agenda.