Livingstone, Zambia — Under the umbrella of the global World Malaria Day theme, "Malaria Ends with Us: Reinvest, Reimagine, Reignite," the J.C. Flowers Foundation convened key partners at its Isdell:Flowers Cross Border Malaria Initiative (IFCBMI) Round Table, 7-9 May 2025. Because reinvesting, reimagining, and reigniting are essential in this time of abrupt global funding cuts to malaria programs, the meeting brought together faith and traditional leaders, government representatives, scientists, community advocates, and international partners to take stock of their work in the midst of a changing malaria landscape.

In her opening address, "Responding Boldly Together to the Perfect Storm that Threatens Malaria Elimination, " Joy Phumaphi, Executive Secretary of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), a coalition of African Union Heads of State working toward malaria elimination in Africa by 2030, warned about the simultaneous challenges of climate change, which is expanding malaria transmission zones; humanitarian crises that disrupt malaria control efforts; biological resistance of the mosquito and malaria parasite to insecticides, medication, and diagnostics; and the funding gap, exacerbated by major recent cuts in global funding for public health.   She urged those gathered: "Let us not look back years from now and say, 'We saw the storm coming, and we chose to wait.'"

To spur on cross-sector imagination, the round table included a joint session with the  the Gates Foundation-supported Malaria Drug Accelerator (MalDA) Consortium, a global drug discovery collaboration of eighteen groups working to accelerate antimalarial drug discovery.   In the dialogue between Isdell:Flowers malaria practitioners and MalDA scientists, practitioners shared the complexities of ensuring full uptake of malaria treatment—which depends on a range of pressing factors, including community mobilization and demand creation, ready access to diagnosis and treatment, supply chain management, and treatment adherence.   MalDA scientists gave hopeful insight into innovative malaria treatments that are currently in the development pipeline.   The joint session was the idea of Isdell:Flowers Cross Border Malaria Initiative co-founder Neville Isdell and Dr. Kelly Chibale, the Neville Isdell Chair in African-centric Drug Discovery and Development at the University of Cape Town, who named the reality that drug discovery and community implementation need each other. Chibale concluded the joint session by starkly naming the essential contributions of all: "innovation without access is pointless."

The joint session's keynote address was delivered by the Guest of Honor, Hon. Dr. Elijah J. Muchima, Minister of Health of Zambia, represented by Dr. Kennedy Lishimpi, Permanent Secretary for Technical Services of the Ministry of Health. He noted that "Our efforts to eliminate malaria will be futile if we do not engage effectively with the community. Therefore, engagement with religious and traditional leaders, who are critical to our elimination agenda, cannot be over-emphasized."

The Mayor of the City of Livingstone, Her Worship Constance Nalishebo Muleabai, emphasized the need for society-wide engagement: "Elimination of malaria is no longer a distant dream; it is an attainable reality. But it will take all of us—leaders, scientists, faith communities, business houses, and every citizen to make this vision come to life. As we deliberate in this meeting, let us remember the urgency of our mission and the impact that our actions will have on generations to come. Let us forge stronger partnerships, embrace innovation, and mobilize every possible resource to make Livingstone, Zambia, and the entire region malaria-free."

The theme of the important role of the "two C's – chiefs and church" was reiterated repeatedly, including by Zambian Chief Mundandwe of the Chiefdom of Mukola Mushiko, Liuwa Plain National Park, who has made fighting malaria a priority in his chiefdom. Village Head and Isdell:Flowers Malaria Program Field Officer Themba Sibanda, from Zimbabwe, echoed how he has used his leadership position to ensure proper net usage.

Though the combined efforts that have averted an estimated 2.2 billion malaria cases and 12.7 million malaria deaths since 2020 have been facilitated by significant global funding (of which 37% came from the United States), this significant progress against malaria has also depended on effective local implementation of funded programs.   Chris Flowers, co-founder of the Isdell:Flowers Cross Border Malaria Initiative spoke to the underlying reason for the initiative's approach to malaria control and elimination, which centers communities affected by malaria in the fight against the disease: "community engagement remains a powerful force in this fight. . . . communities are driving progress, showing innovation, resilience, strong leadership, and real reductions in malaria cases."   Isdell:Flowers Cross Border Malaria Initiative Regional Coordinator Constance Njovu and her colleagues João Baptista Nelo (from the Angolan Anglican Diocese of Center and South) and Monica Mvula and Saviour Kasonde (from the Anglican Diocese of Lusaka) gave examples of the importance of community-level malaria leadership, explaining how community health workers and preexisting community groups are identifying and resolving barriers to efficient malaria prevention, testing, and treatment (including across borders), and are supporting the optimization of government investment in nets and malaria treatment.

Philmar Vinga, from the Anglican Diocese of Harare, used the Shona proverb "kutsva kwendebvu varume vanodzimurana" ("when a man's beard catches fire, other men will come to his rescue and put out the fire") to describe how miners and fishers, trained as community health workers, are best equipped to bring crucial malaria case management services that would otherwise be unavailable to mobile populations at high risk.

Monitor Chimgano, of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe Harare East District, described how care groups (composed of 10-15 caregivers working together) have contributed to an increase in prompt care seeking behavior in program areas within Mudzi District from 47% in 2023 to 60% in 2024, an increase of IRS coverage from 83% of households to 91%, and a decrease in detected malaria cases from 9979 in 2023 to 1095 in 2024.

Faith leaders from the FLAME (Faith Leader Advocacy for Malaria Elimination) Initiative—including Anglican bishops from Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, led by Anglican Archbishop Albert Chama—also explained their various multifaceted roles in advocacy. These range from roles as first responders (described by Rev. Nalishuwa Imumbani, who prays for febrile people who come to his home and immediately facilitates a rapid diagnostic blood test for malaria), as local accountability partners (described by Zambian Bishop Elias Mponela from the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia, who visits health facilities to verify adequate medication stocks), as public voices (described by Namibian Bishop Benjamin Limbo of the Victory Forever Ministry, who has urged media attention to Namibia's current malaria outbreak), and as mass mobilizers (described by Reverend Vladimir Agostinho, General Secretary of the Council of Christian Churches in Angola, who is currently mobilize all faith leaders throughout Moxico province to play an active role in the upcoming net distribution campaign).

Throughout the round table, there was a dissonance between the deep commitment to malaria control and elimination from communities affected by malaria and the reduced commitment to continued funding by global partners.   Lamenting the recent dismantling of USAID, and particularly the defunding of the US government's President's Malaria Initiative, which has saved an estimated 7.6 million lives and prevented 1.5 billion malaria infections over the past two decades, Executive Director Rebecca J. Vander Meulen closed: "I believe we have dire days ahead. And yet we cannot let this paralyze us. Our work is more important than ever. Three-quarters of malaria deaths in Africa are in children under five years old. We are alive because someone looked out for us when we were children. These lives matter, and our work matters."

is committed to malaria elimination through community mobilization along the shared borders of Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. IFCBMI believes that malaria can be eliminated only if those most affected have the knowledge, skills, and resources to prevent and treat the disease and to advocate for its elimination. Since 2004, Isdell:Flowers Cross Border Malaria Initiative partners have worked with networks of local faith organizations and community volunteers, in collaboration with Ministries of Health, using strategies that are community-based, cross-border, in partnership, and concentrated in overlooked communities.