Despite the WHO's pledge to halve the number of malaria cases by 2010, the disease seems to be on the increase. IPN's Philip Stevens examines what is going wrong for the WHO, and suggests that a winning strategy must involve DDT spraying in dwellings.

NO ONE can accuse the World Health Organisation (WHO) of lacking ambition in its attempts to get to grips with the AIDS crisis sweeping much of sub-Saharan Africa. Its "three by five" initiative - a plan to put 3-million people on lifeextending antiretroviral treatment by the end of this year - is arguably the single biggest push that any multilateral body has yet undertaken to try to tackle the disease. Unfortunately, according to figures released last week by the WHO, the project looks like its going to miss its target spectacularly.

The strategic documents coming out of the WHO lay bare the power the big NGOs now have in shaping its agenda - and it is an agenda that promotes the failed redistributory economics of the past.