Malaria status & challenges of the epidemic

5. How much funding is allocated to malaria control?

The picture of funding for malaria control is incomplete because many countries have not submitted information. The general conclusion is that although funding for malaria control was greater in 2006 than ever before, it is not yet possible to judge which countries have adequate resources for malaria control and it is also currently impossible to tell whether the money available has been used effectively. In Africa, funding is probably still far below needs.

In 2006, the WHO African Region received more than US $688 million for malaria control, which was considerably more than for any other region and which represented the sharpest increase in funding between 2004 and 2006 anywhere in the world. During that time period, the amount of money available to fight malaria in this region increased by more than three-fold. Yet, despite the huge amount of money involved, only $4.6 were available for each estimated malaria case in the 26 countries (out of 45) that submitted a report in 2006, which is unlikely to be sufficient to meet targets for prevention and cure.

The two major funding sources worldwide are national governments and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In the Americas, European and South East Asia WHO Regions, the main contributors are the national governments. In the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific WHO Regions, the Global Fund is the biggest source of financial support. The WHO Western Pacific Region relied most on external funding, followed by the African and Eastern Mediterranean WHO Regions. African countries received support from the greatest number of different external agencies.

This text is a summary of: WHO, World Malaria Report (2008) ,
4. Interventions to control malaria, Comment, p.23 and Funding for malaria control, p.26