Malaria

Our goal
A world free of malaria.
A woman and child with bed nets in their home in Lupiro village, Tanzania.
A woman and child with bed nets in their home in Lupiro village, Tanzania.

At a glance

  • Over the past two decades, increased funding, the scale-up of effective interventions, and political commitment have dramatically reduced the global burden of malaria, preventing 1.7 billion cases and saving 10.6 million lives.
  • But progress has slowed in recent years. Malaria persists in high-burden communities, and challenges including drug and insecticide resistance, stagnant funding, and emergent diseases such as COVID-19 threaten continued progress.
  • According to the 2021 World Malaria Report, there were an estimated 241 million malaria cases in 2020, 95 percent of them in Africa. An estimated 627,000 people died from malaria in 2020, mostly children under age 5.
  • Eradication is the only sustainable approach to addressing malaria. By using existing tools effectively to save lives and advancing innovative approaches to eradication, we can rid the world of this preventable, treatable disease.

The latest updates on malaria

Jennifer Gardy, deputy director at the Gates Foundation, looks inside a solar fridge during CES 2025 in Las Vegas.
Article

Six innovations transforming the future of global health

Six global health innovations saving lives—from drones to AI ultrasounds. Discover how these breakthroughs are transforming healthcare worldwide.
Jennifer Gardy Deputy Director, Special Initiatives, Gates Foundation
Dr. Corine Ngufor in London, United Kingdom.
Article

The researcher versus the mosquitoes

A Cameroonian scientist helped find a cost-effective way to exterminate more mosquitoes—and cut malaria cases among children almost in half.
Jennifer Gardy Deputy Director, Special Initiatives, Gates Foundation
Rachel Adams, Darlington Akogo, Dr. John Okombo, Dr. Disebo Potloane, Dandara Ramos, and Marie-Angélique Sène
Article

Six scientists share the innovations that could transform the future

We asked scientists at the 2023 Grand Challenges Annual Meeting to share the scientific innovation that could transform their community over the next 20 years. Here’s what they said.
Bismark Owusu, a worker of Anglogold Ashanti Malaria Ltd, covers furniture before spraying the walls of a house with insecticide against mosquitos in Adansi Domeabra, Ghana, in May 2018.  Insecticide resistance has become a huge problem, threatening an uptick in malaria cases in both rural and urban areas.
Article

Is the threat of malaria increasing?

Climate change, insecticide resistance, upticks in urban mosquitoes: Could malaria be getting worse? Our expert explains why investing in innovations that stop malaria is more important than ever.
Laura Norris Senior Program Officer, Gates Foundation
Our strategy

Our strategy

Malaria eradication is a top priority of the foundation. For two decades, we have devoted resources and expertise to a relentless pursuit of malaria eradication, and we have continuously adapted our approach to achieve the greatest possible impact, in partnership with the global community. We support efforts to:

  • Reduce the burden of malaria by expanding the use of effective existing tools, including preventive medication and case management, and improving disease surveillance and data for decision-making high-burden settings

  • Accelerate progress toward eradication by investing in next-generation surveillance systems, elimination in regions where drug-resistant malaria has emerged, and research and development efforts

  • Get ahead of resistance by eliminating falciparum malaria—the type that causes the most severe cases and deaths—in the Greater Mekong Subregion, developing a robust pipeline of new treatments, and analyzing disease and mosquito genetic data to quickly respond to threats
A health care worker explains malaria treatment options at a rural health center in Zambia.
A health care worker explains malaria treatment options at a rural health center in Zambia.

Our contributions account for less than 5 percent of the $4.3 billion invested annually in the fight against malaria. To maximize our impact, we concentrate our resources in areas where our efforts can be catalytic, assume risks that would be more challenging for others to take, and focus on long-term objectives.

Any goal short of eradicating malaria is accepting malaria, it’s making peace with malaria, it’s rich countries saying, "We don’t need to eradicate malaria around the world as long as we’ve eliminated it in our own countries." That is just unacceptable.
Melinda French Gates
Areas of focus

Areas of focus

Together with our partners, we fight malaria by working to expand access to existing tools, using data to better track and target the disease, advancing research on potentially transformative innovations, and advocating for others to join in the effort to end malaria.

Many of the tools and approaches needed to fight malaria—including insecticide-treated bed nets, rapid diagnostic tests, effective medicines, and access to treatment—already exist and have been instrumental in delivering the progress achieved to date.

In some places, malaria is a seasonal disease that is highly susceptible to changes in temperature or rainfall.

The tools and approaches we have today, though essential to saving lives, will not be sufficient to end malaria for good.

Progress against malaria isn’t possible without a diverse chorus of champions and a broad base of support.

Why focus on malaria?

Why focus on malaria?

Malaria exacts a massive toll on human health and imposes a heavy social and economic burden in low- and middle-income countries. An estimated 241 million people had malaria in 2020, 95 percent of them in Africa, and 627,000 died, mostly children under age 5. Malaria’s economic impact is estimated in the billions of dollars in lost productivity every year.

Ending malaria for good—eradication—is an achievable goal that will save lives and is the only sustainable solution to address this disease. As long as malaria exists, it will be an engine of inequality, burdening the poorest and most vulnerable communities, and it will have the potential to resurge in times of crisis. Aspiring to anything less than eradication means accepting the suffering and deaths of children in poor countries.

Ridding the world of malaria will lead to healthier, more prosperous communities that are better able to thrive, prosper, and confront new health challenges as they arise. Along the way, the choices we make to improve existing efforts in countries with the highest burdens, improve existing technologies and develop new breakthroughs, and encourage continued political commitment at every level will save lives.

A community health volunteer visits a child who has malaria in Zambia.
A community health volunteer visits a child with malaria in Zambia.
Strategy leadership

Strategy leadership

The work of the Malaria team is touched by hundreds of foundation staff working across dozens of issues around the world. Since 2018, the team has been led by Philip Welkhoff.
Philip Welkhoff
Philip Welkhoff
Director, Malaria; Director, Institute for Disease Modeling
Philip Welkhoff has led the foundation’s Malaria program since 2018 and has concurrently led the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) since 2021.
Jennifer Gardy
Jennifer Gardy
Deputy Director, Special Initiatives
Jennifer Gardy joined the foundation in 2019 as deputy director for Surveillance, Data, and Epidemiology for the Malaria team and since 2021 has also served as a deputy director for the Institute for Disease Modeling.
Gates Foundation placeholder image for leadership.
Kedar Gumaste
Deputy Director, Strategy, Planning, and Management
Kedar Gumaste oversees strategy, operations, resource planning, and special projects for the Malaria and Institute for Disease Modeling teams.
Our partners

Our partners

We do our work in collaboration with grantees and other partners, who join with us in the vision of a world free of malaria.
African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA)

ALMA works with African leaders to ensure that malaria remains a priority on the political and policy agenda at the regional and national levels.

Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA) and Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN)
APLMA and APMEN work with governments and the private sector to generate leadership, financing, and operational support for the effort to eliminate malaria from the Asia-Pacific region by 2030.
Civil Society for Malaria Elimination (CS4ME)

CS4ME is a global network of civil society organizations and communities working to achieve malaria elimination and ensure that communities are at the center of malaria programs.

Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)

CHAI provides operational support to over 20 countries to expand diagnostic testing for malaria and increase access to treatment. It also helps governments strengthen disease surveillance and data analysis to identify where transmission is occurring and better target interventions where they can have the greatest impact.

Elimination Eight Initiative (E8)

The E8 is a coalition of eight countries working across national borders to eliminate malaria in southern Africa by 2030.

End Malaria Council (EMC)

EMC is a group of high-level leaders from around the world who are working toward malaria eradication.

Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria
The Global Fund works to deliver solutions that advance global health and development and raise awareness of the ongoing fights against HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria.
Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC)
IVCC works to reduce the impact of vector-borne diseases and contribute to their control and elimination by improving vector control tools, supporting enhanced evaluation processes, ensuring the quality of products, and improving their judicious and safe use.
Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI) at the University of California, San Francisco

MEI works to advance malaria elimination in priority regions of southern Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, and support the global goal of malaria eradication, through evidence generation, technical assistance, resource mobilization, and capacity building.

Malaria No More

Malaria No More mobilizes political commitment, funding, and innovation to achieve the end of malaria within a generation.

Malaria No More UK

Malaria No More UK works to galvanize political and multi-sector leadership, visibility, funding, and action to halve malaria in the Commonwealth by 2023 and support progress toward global 2030 targets on the road to eradication.

Malaria Partners International

Malaria Partners International works to connect Rotary clubs and the broader global health community to prevent malaria and address its effects on maternal and child health.

Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV)

MMV works to further drug discovery and development aimed at delivering innovative medicines for malaria in endemic countries.

Oxitec

Oxitec is developing a self-limiting genetic-based vector control platform for potential future application to contribute to integrated vector control efforts.

Pan-African Mosquito Control Association (PAMCA)

PAMCA works to provide a platform for capacity building, knowledge sharing, and collaboration for concerted vector control initiatives on the African continent.

PATH Malaria Control and Elimination Partnership in Africa (MACEPA)

MACEPA collaborates with African countries to scale up interventions to reduce the burden of malaria, as well as generate evidence and support planning for new strategies to accelerate progress toward elimination.

RBM Partnership to End Malaria

The RBM Partnership works to keep malaria high on the global agenda, increase financing for combating malaria, and support countries in their efforts to eliminate the disease.

Target Malaria

Target Malaria is a nonprofit research consortium that aims to develop and share technology to reduce the population of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes in sub-Saharan Africa.

The UN Foundation | United to Beat Malaria campaign

The United to Beat Malaria campaign brings together a diverse set of partners, influencers and supporters across the U.S. and around the world to take urgent action to end malaria.

World Health Organization (WHO) Global Malaria Programme (GMP)

The GMP coordinates WHO's global efforts to control and eliminate malaria.