World Malaria Day 2026 Advocates’ Toolkit

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World Malaria Day ( 25 April ) comes at a moment of both unprecedented opportunity and growing risk. The 2026 theme – Driven to End Malaria: Now we can, now we must reflects a powerful reality: for the first time, ending malaria as a threat in our lifetime is within reach.

New tools are transforming the fight against malaria. Next-generation insecticide-treated nets now make up the vast majority of nets distributed globally. These add to the impact achieved through the scale up of Artemisinin-based combination treatments (ACT) treatments, seasonal malaria chemoprevention, and the recent introduction of malaria vaccines.  Moreover, breakthrough technologies such as new treatments, long-acting formulations of medicines, and genetically modified mosquitoes are on the horizon. And yet, progress is fragile.

Malaria remains preventable and treatable, but deaths are rising again in many settings, driven by population growth in endemic areas, climate change, conflict and, crucially, chronic underfunding. At a time when we have more tools than ever before, we cannot afford to lose ground.

Now we can. Now we must.

Why This Moment Matters: GC8 and Country Decisions

Allocation letters from the Global Fund have been sent out, and countries are beginning to develop their Grant Cycle 8 (GC8) funding requests. These decisions will shape national malaria responses for the next three years.

Civil society and community advocates have a vital role to play in this process, particularly through engagement in Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs), where funding priorities are discussed and agreed.

This toolkit is designed to support malaria advocates in:

  • understanding what is at stake in GC8
  • identifying priority interventions
  • and taking action around World Malaria Day

WHAT IS AT STAKE IN GC8?

GC8 will take place in a much more difficult global health environment than previous cycles. The Global Fund’s Eighth Replenishment raised $12.64 billion, well below the $18 billion target, leaving a major funding gap for the next grant cycle and for the first time in over a decade, a cycle-to-cycle decrease in country allocation.

Many bilateral and multilateral donors have reduced or restructured their global health funding. At the same time, countries are facing growing pressure to increase domestic financing while managing competing fiscal demands.

As a result of the shrinking volume of aid, the development of GC8 funding requests will involve difficult prioritization decisions; that is, activities will be scaled back and cut. These decisions will often take place during discussions within the CCM. This means community engagement in CCM processes will be essential to ensure that crucial Malaria interventions remain prioritized.

WHAT GOT CUT IN GC7 REPRIORITIZATION

Evidence from the Grant Cycle 7 (GC7) reprioritization process shows that when funding is constrained, insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) were among the interventions most reduced in funding. These are also two of the most cost-effective and impactful tools we have to prevent malaria, making their protection in GC8 critical.

Malaria is not only a parasite in people, but also a parasite on entire health systems. Before the large-scale expansion of malaria programs in the early 2000s, malaria accounted for more clinic visits and hospital admissions than all other diseases combined in many endemic countries. Even today, it remains a leading cause of outpatient visits and hospitalizations across high-burden settings. This places a heavy strain on already stretched health systems and drives up costs for both governments and families.

Interventions like ITNs and SMC can greatly reduce this burden at scale. By preventing malaria infection and slowing progression to severe disease, these tools reduce mortality while also reducing pressure on health services and freeing up resources for other critical health needs. (Read: Malaria control is key to strong and resilient health systems)

Insecticide-Treated Nets (ITNs)

ITNs are the backbone of malaria prevention. Compared to standard nets, the introduction of 56 million state-of-the-art mosquito nets in 17 countries across sub-Saharan Africa averted an estimated 13 million malaria cases and 24,600 deaths. ( Watch: This video to know more ) The Global Fund has used its market-shaping approach to reduce the price of the Dual Insecticides Nets enabling procurement of far superior nets at a price as low as under $3 per net. These savings helped deliver millions of additional nets and treatments. If we are serious about ending malaria, we cannot cut one of our most effective tools. Some call these cuts “delays”; ITNs do not last for ever, so this is a distinction without difference.

Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC)

Young children are particularly vulnerable to malaria due to their developing immune systems and lack of immunity due to limited previous exposure. SMC has been proven to be an effective and affordable tool to protect young children and reduce mortality. Notably, the tremendous added value of the malaria vaccine comes when it is used with SMC.[1]  

In the hardest-hit countries across the Sahel, the Global Fund supports the rollout of SMC campaigns, a cost-effective and targeted intervention for young children that can reduce malaria cases by more than 70%. In 2024, the Global Fund invested US$75 million in SMC and 50.9 million children received this preventive treatment. By reducing the number of uncomplicated cases and reducing the risk of severe malaria, SMC contributes to savings by reducing the number of treatments needed for malaria. It is also the intervention that adds immense value and strengthens the protection web provided by the malaria vaccines.

Read: New malaria vaccines: what they can and what they cannot change for the global malaria pandemic

Watch: Dreaming of a malaria free future: Protecting kids through SMC

Climate Change and Malaria

Malaria is one of the most climate-sensitive diseases. Temperature changes, shifting rainfall patterns and extreme weather events are affecting the transmission of malaria. It is estimated that climate change could cause more than 550,000 additional malaria deaths by 2050, with over 90% of these additional deaths predicted to arise from loss of protection following extreme weather.[2]

Recent events show how quickly this risk can become reality.

  • The floods that covered 10% of Pakistan turned the affected areas into a breeding ground for mosquitoes, at the same time that it crippled access to preventive and treatment services. This led to a 5-fold increase in the number of malaria infections in 2022, exploding from an estimated 500.000 cases in 2021 to 2.6 million in 2022.[3]
  • In 2023, Malawi and Mozambique were hit hard and partly flooded by Cyclone Freddy, leading an increase in malaria cases in both countries.[4]

These examples highlight a critical reality. Climate shocks do not just increase malaria risk; they also disrupt the very systems needed to respond. As climate impacts intensify, malaria responses must be more resilient, not scaled back. We must protect and scale proven prevention tools like ITNs and SMC.

Getting Ahead of Drug Resistance

Artemisinin-based combination therapies have saved millions of lives over two decades, but partial resistance is now spreading across sub-Saharan Africa, threatening to reverse this progress.

Protect The Cure is a global advocacy initiative that offers an inside look at the fight against partial resistance to artemisinin. The campaign unites the voices of scientists, health workers, families, and policymakers to explore what resistance means, why it matters, and the urgent actions needed to stop it.

A series of documentary films has been released as part of the initiative:

This campaign has been created by Temple University, USA and Impact Santé Afrique.

How to Engage Your CCM?

The CCM is the body responsible for coordinating Global Fund funding requests in eligible countries. CCMs include representatives from government, civil society, affected communities, multilateral agencies, and technical partners.

As a Malaria advocates, you can:

  • Contact CCM members
    Reach out to representatives from the Ministry of Health, National Malaria Control Program, and civil society delegations.
  • Ask questions about GC8 priorities
    Ask how Malaria programs are being prioritized in the upcoming funding request.
  • Highlight community priorities
    Share evidence and community perspectives on why specific Malaria interventions should remain funded.
  • Use World Malaria Day to raise visibility
    This can help ensure Malaria remains visible during GC8 decision-making.

You can find contact details for CCM members in your country here: data.theglobalfund.org/geography

Need more information about CCM processes? Check out this GFAN pre-read!

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Key GFAN Resources

  1. Malaria Control is Key to Strong and Resilient Health Systems – Prior to the major scale up of malaria programs in the early 2000’s, malaria would account for more clinic visits and hospital admissions than all other diseases combined in many endemic countries; even today, malaria remains the leading cause of outpatient consultations and hospitalizations across many endemic regions. This also makes malaria a major contributor to healthcare costs in high burden countries, both at the system and individual levels. Read our brief to know more.
  2. Under 5 and Under Threat in West and Central Africa; and Analysis of Under 5 Mortality from Malaria in West and Central Africa – Read these two briefs to know what is happening in West and Central Africa. It is far from marginal: one in six children under the age of five worldwide grows up in this region. Between 2000 and 2023, the number of annual births in WCA nearly doubled, bringing the under-five population to 95 million. This demographic growth comes with a sobering reality: two out of every five under-five deaths globally occur in this single region. In 2023, nearly 1.8 million children under the age of five died there, with malaria the largest cause of death, accounting for 18% of deaths in children under 5 in the region.

Resources from The Global Fund

  1. Global Fund Results Report 2025 – Read on to know the impact that Global Fund partnerships’ investments have had in the fight against Malaria.
  2. Global Fund Microsite on Health Security – Visit this microsite to equip yourself with arguments on how Global Fund Partnerships’ investments in in health systems and disease surveillance in more than 100 countries help to detect, track and contain new outbreaks around the world.
  3. Applying for Funding in the 2023-2025 Allocation Period Mock TRP observations and key messages – We specifically recommend looking at the last two pages of the deck for some additional resources.
  4. Evaluation Brief Evaluation of Capacity, Quality and Decision-making in Sub-national Tailoring of Malaria Interventions – This evaluation brief is a high-level summary of the documents developed for the Evaluation of Capacity, Quality and Decision-making in Sub-national Tailoring of Malaria Interventions
  5. Donor Statement on Urgent Action Required To Address Antimalarial Drug Resistance – The Gates Foundation, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (Global Fund), the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), and Unitaid, in this 2024 statement, call on bilateral and multilateral donors, philanthropic foundations, and the private sector to join them in heeding the call from malaria endemic countries to make existing alternative ACTs available and affordable. The challenge posed by artemisinin resistance, declines in artemisinin efficacy put more pressure on drugs paired with artemisinin. This threat is magnified by the fact that a single ACT – artemether-lumefantrine (AL) – accounts for close to 85 percent of the public sector malaria treatment market and is the most common ACT in the private sector. Unsurprisingly, signs of reduced efficacy of AL are also now emerging across multiple sites in Africa, magnifying the urgency to address antimalarial drug resistance. The global malaria community must act now to diversify the ACTs in use to mitigate the spread of antimalarial drug resistance.

Other Resources

  • Yaoundé Declaration for accelerated malaria mortality reduction in Africa – Ministers from 11 countries that carry about two thirds of the global malaria burden signed the “Yaoundé Declaration,” pledging their commitment to the principle that “no one should die from malaria given the tools and systems available.” They further committed to lowering the disease burden and addressing root causes by strengthening national health systems, improving coordination and ensuring the strategic use of information, among other actions. 
  • Making country-led malaria control a reality (Friends of the Global Fight, March 2026) – Outlines principles and pathways to support a successful implementation of the America First Global Health Strategy for malaria, including insights from country case-studies from El Salvador, Indonesia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania.

[1] Chandramohan D, et al. Seasonal Malaria Vaccination with or without Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention. N Engl J Med. 2021 Sep 9;385(11):1005-1017. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2026330. Epub 2021 Aug 25. PMID: 34432975.

[2] Malaria Atlas Project: https://malariaatlas.org/project-resources/climate-change/

[3] WHO World Malaria Report 2024

[4] WHO World Malaria Report 2024