The burden of malaria is increasing, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, because of drug and insecticide resistance and social and environmental changes. Thus, there is an urgent need for vaccines, new drugs and insecticides. Parasite, mosquito and human genome projects are helping in the search for new control tools and international donors are developing new funding mechanisms that could make them available to poor countries. But these new tools will achieve their maximum impact only if additional resources are deployed to strengthen malaria research and control communities in countries where the new tools will be used.