The global malaria response is unravelling. In 2023, available funding for malaria control reached just USD 4 billion against an USD 8.3 billion target, a gap that is continuing to widen. After the Global Fund, the US has historically been the second largest funder of the global malaria response, providing roughly a third of global resources. Now the US FY2026 budget proposal slashes malaria funding by 47 %, threatening to reverse two decades of hard-won progress.
Malaria cases hit 263 million in 2023, with 597 000 deaths. The US President’s Malaria Initiative alone could prevent 15 million cases and 107 000 deaths in 2025, but funding freezes have already derailed 40 % of planned bed net distributions and 30 % of chemoprevention campaigns. The proposed US FY2026 cuts threaten far more devastating consequences.
The USAID Malaria Vaccine Development Program, instrumental in advancing next-generation vaccines, shut down mid-2025. Global R&D funding, already down to USD 690 million against an USD 851 million target, faces deeper cuts. This comes precisely when breakthrough vaccines show 75 % efficacy and new drug combinations near phase III completion.
While global funding is in retreat, national governments of high-burden countries are scaling up domestic financing and operational efforts. Still, local resilience can’t substitute for global solidarity, nor can domestic budgets facing structural constraints match the gap left behind by receding international donors. There is an urgent need to recommit to malaria elimination as a shared global priority; otherwise, the decades of investment will unravel faster than they were built.
