As we mark World Malaria Day 2025, CESMEL Health joins the global community in reflecting on the progress and the road ahead in the fight to eliminate malaria. This year’s theme, “Malaria Ends with Us: Reinvest, Reimagine, Reignite,” is a timely call to action.
But for these words to become a reality, we must recognize a fundamental truth: malaria will not end without data.
Data is the backbone of malaria control and elimination efforts. It tells us where malaria risk is higher, how interventions perform, and which communities remain vulnerable.
From routine data to large-scale household surveys, data provides the evidence needed to guide policies, allocate resources, and evaluate impact.
Yet today, that foundation is under threat. The recent US foreign aid cuts have significantly disrupted malaria data systems across Sub-Saharan Africa—both routine data platforms and nationally representative surveys.
Many countries are now facing the risk of operating without reliable or timely data, which may undermine their ability to monitor disease trends, respond to outbreaks, and plan effective interventions.
Reinvesting in malaria means reinvesting in the systems that generate, analyze, and use data. These systems must be:
- Integrated rather than siloed
- Timely rather than delayed
- Informative at the point of care, rather than simply reporting upwards
- Locally owned rather than external-dependent
- Resilient rather than vulnerable to short-term funding shifts
To truly reimagine malaria elimination, we must also reimagine our approach to data not as a peripheral function, but as a strategic driver of health system performance.
It is now only five years from 2030, the target year for achieving the global malaria goals in the WHO Global Technical Strategy (GTS).
With progress stalling in many high-burden countries, there is no time to waste. Strong data systems are not optional but essential for course correction and acceleration.
We call on governments, funding and technical partners, and the global health community to prioritize sustainable investments in malaria data systems. Without them, progress will be difficult to sustain and impossible to measure.
As we reignite the global commitment to end malaria, let us ensure no country is left in the dark.
Malaria ends with us, and that means ending data blindness first.
CESMEL Health Leadership
