Southern Africa: Climate Change and Funding Cuts Threaten Malaria Targets - What SADC Countries Can Do

What the report says

Malaria control efforts in the Southern African Development Community are under pressure as case numbers have risen over the past two years and some countries have lost ground on earlier gains, according to an analysis published by The Conversation Africa and republished by AllAfrica. The piece says the region’s targets are being strained by a combination of reduced external funding, climate-related flooding, drug and insecticide resistance, and weak surveillance capacity.

The article highlights that countries with major malaria burdens in the wider region include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Angola and Tanzania, and notes that the World Health Organization’s 2030 elimination goal is becoming harder to meet. It says national malaria programmes are overstretched, while recent shifts in global health financing have forced recipients of grants to make sharper choices about where to direct limited resources. In practice, that has meant scaling back some preventive and elimination activities in favor of protecting the most vulnerable groups.

Climate impacts are also central to the warning. The analysis points to flooding linked to La Niña in early 2026, which it says damaged infrastructure and displaced communities in parts of southern Africa, including Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa. It argues that mobile and displaced populations increase pressure on health systems and raise the risk of stockouts and cross-border spread.

The author calls for stronger domestic investment, better regional coordination, early warning systems and expanded genomic surveillance to detect resistance sooner. As background, this reflects a broader public health challenge in malaria-endemic regions where climate shocks and donor dependence can quickly disrupt disease-control progress.