The Africa Malaria Progress Reports are annual publications produced by the African Union Commission, the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria.
These documents track the progress of African Union Member States toward the ultimate goal of eliminating malaria across the continent by 2030.
They provide a comprehensive overview of the epidemiological landscape, outline pressing financial challenges, highlight technological breakthroughs, and hold leaders accountable for the commitments they have made to eradicate the disease.
The years between 2018 and 2025 brought immense challenges and remarkable innovations to the fight against malaria in Africa.
During this time, the continent faced a global pandemic, severe climate shocks, and a growing financial crisis.
Despite these severe hurdles, African nations developed new vaccines, introduced advanced vector control tools, and mobilized domestic resources to fight the disease.
Year by year summary of key progress and challenges documented in the Africa Malaria Progress Reports
- 2018: African leaders launched the Zero Malaria Starts with Me campaign to reignite stalled progress across the continent. The continent reported 200 million cases and 403,000 deaths in the preceding year. Leaders emphasized the urgent need for national End Malaria Councils to mobilize domestic resources.
- 2019: The World Health Organization certified Algeria as completely malaria free. The High Burden to High Impact approach rolled out in the countries most heavily affected by the disease to optimize intervention strategies.
- 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic threatened to double malaria deaths across Africa. African countries rapidly adapted their campaigns by using door to door net distribution and air freighting medicines to avoid the worst case scenario.
- 2021: The World Health Organization approved the first malaria vaccine called RTS,S/AS01 for children living in moderate to high transmission areas. The organization also revised its burden estimates to show that historical malaria deaths were significantly higher than previously understood.
- 2022: The Global Fund replenishment fell short of its 18 billion dollar target. The Kigali Summit on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases gathered new pledges from global leaders. Leaders warned that climate change and extreme weather events were expanding the habitats of mosquitoes.
- 2023: Cabo Verde achieved official certification as a malaria free nation. The World Health Organization recommended a second highly effective vaccine called R21/Matrix M. Severe weather events like Cyclone Freddy destroyed health infrastructure and caused malaria spikes in Southern Africa. The invasive Anopheles stephensi mosquito emerged as a major threat in urban centers.
- 2024: Egypt achieved malaria free certification after successfully eliminating the disease. A perfect storm of biological resistance, climate change, and financial gaps threatened to derail decades of progress. Countries began rolling out next generation nets to combat growing insecticide resistance.
- 2025: Official development assistance declined significantly, causing major funding volatility. African leaders held a Big Push meeting in Abuja to prioritize domestic funding and health sovereignty. Dual active ingredient nets made up 74 percent of distributed nets. Spatial repellents entered the market as a brand new vector control tool.
Human resources and capacity building in the Africa malaria progress reports
In 2018, the report highlights the rollout of national malaria control scorecards to decentralized levels to train health personnel and improve sub national management. It also emphasizes the need to strengthen community health worker programs to expand service delivery to rural populations.
Moving into 2019, the document outlines the launch of the High Burden to High Impact approach which relies heavily on technical assistance to build local capacity for data analysis and sub national tailoring of interventions. It notes that empowering local leadership and management is essential to translate national policies into district level action.
During 2020, the report focuses on the heroic efforts of frontline health workers who maintained essential malaria services and adapted service delivery protocols amidst the COVID 19 pandemic. It details how countries rapidly trained community health workers on infection prevention while decentralizing case management to the community level.
For 2021, the publication discusses the extensive capacity building required to prepare the health workforce for the rollout of the newly approved RTS S malaria vaccine. It also emphasizes the continued expansion of sub national scorecards to empower local managers with data for immediate operational decision making.
The 2022 text highlights the mobilization of political and community leadership through the Kigali Summit and the establishment of national End Malaria Councils. It points to technical assistance efforts aimed at equipping sub national teams with the skills to implement stratified and locally tailored malaria interventions.
In 2023, the report documents the urgent need for technical training and capacity building to help local health staff detect and manage the invasive Anopheles stephensi mosquito in urban settings. It reaffirms the critical role of community health networks in delivering integrated community case management to the most vulnerable populations.
The 2024 document emphasizes that deploying next generation vector control tools requires sustained capacity building and precise management by sub national health teams. It notes that international technical assistance is increasingly focused on helping local leaders optimize resource allocation in the face of severe funding shortages.
Finally, the 2025 report indicates that widespread decentralization of digital management tools has empowered community leaders and local health workers to independently track disease trends and trigger timely local action. However, it warns that chronic human resource shortages and inadequate local training continue to impede the delivery of life saving interventions at the last mile.
Policy and leadership evolution
The approach to malaria governance shifted from relying heavily on external donors to focusing on domestic resource mobilization and health sovereignty.
Initiatives like the End Malaria Councils and the Zero Malaria Business Leadership Initiative brought the private sector, civil society, and youth leaders into the fight.
The establishment of the African Medicines Agency helped pave the way for local manufacturing of health commodities.
The biological and environmental landscape
The environment became increasingly hostile to traditional malaria interventions.
The invasive Anopheles stephensi mosquito migrated into African cities, threatening urban populations.
Climate change triggered severe cyclones and flooding, which destroyed infrastructure and created new mosquito breeding grounds.
Furthermore, widespread mosquito resistance to standard insecticides and parasite resistance to antimalarial drugs forced countries to rethink their strategies.
The technological toolkit
The tools available to fight malaria expanded dramatically.
In 2018, countries relied primarily on standard pyrethroid nets and traditional sprays.
By 2025, the continent had access to two World Health Organization approved vaccines for children.
Dual active ingredient nets replaced older models, accounting for the vast majority of distributed nets. Digital health repositories and subnational stratification tools allowed governments to deploy these expensive new resources exactly where they were needed most.
The financial reality
Funding remained the most persistent barrier to eliminating malaria.
The financial gap widened over the years as global economic crises and competing health emergencies reduced official development assistance.
The cost of fighting the disease also rose because the new, highly effective commodities cost more than the traditional tools.
This reality is prompting African nations to explore innovative domestic financing models to sustain their life saving programs.