Is political will, or lack of it, the main reason behind the setbacks in global malaria control efforts? We have to admit that 2025 was a year of retreat for global health funding across many programmes, malaria included. However, malaria programmes were already in huge deficit before this time; according to the WHO World Malaria Report 2025, we were able to reach less than half of the global funding target for malaria control, at a time when incidence figures continue to rise. Mortality has also increased, with deaths rising from 597,000 in 2023 to approximately 610,000 in 2024, leaving us significantly above pre-COVID malaria mortality figures. While political will is one of the major contributing factors to slow progress, we must also acknowledge that other forces are at play.…