Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

World's poor headed for better lives in 2030: Gates

January 22, 2015 16:19 IST

Established in 2000, the foundation distributed $3.6 billion in grants in 2013, in particular for global health and development, and had $42.3 billion in assets as of late 2014.

A woman carries a child as she begs for money.

Image: A woman carries a child as she begs for money. Photograph: Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters

Worldwide child deaths will be halved over the next 15 years, polio, guinea worm and river blindness will be eradicated, and there will be a single-dose cure for malaria.

The predictions appear in the annual letter from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, chaired by the Microsoft Corp co-founder and former chief executive and his wife.

Released on Thursday, the letter predicts a long list of breakthroughs in global health and development by 2030, including long-elusive milestones such as Africa being able to feed itself rather than depend on food imports.

However, none of this will be achieved easily.

"You need some breakthroughs," Melinda Gates said in an interview.

Bill Gates with wife Melinda Gates.

Image: Bill Gates with wife Melinda Gates. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

The world's wealthiest foundation had helped produce big advances before, including vaccines against the childhood killers rotavirus and pneumonia, making vaccines "our greatest success," Bill Gates said in the interview.

Established in 2000, the foundation distributed $3.6 billion in grants in 2013, in particular for global health and development, and had $42.3 billion in assets as of late 2014.

"We are doubling down on the bet we made 15 years ago, and picking ambitious goals for what's possible 15 years from now," they wrote.

"The lives of people in poor countries will improve faster in the next 15 years" than ever before.

In 1990, 10 per cent of the world's children died before age 5.

A child labourer

Image: A child at work. Photograph: Reuters

That number is now 5 per cent.

By 2030, only one in 40 will die that early thanks to healthier childcare practices such as breastfeeding, better sanitation and vaccines.

In the next 15 years, they believe farmers in Africa will have access to better fertilizer and to drought-and disease-resistant crops, allowing yields to double.

A child cries in a refugee camp.

Image: A child cries in a refugee camp. Photograph: St-Felix Evens/Reuters

And donated drugs, such as those distributed free to 800 million people last year, can stop polio, elephantiasis and other scourges.

The foundation is also one of the largest donors to the World Health Organization, which has been slammed for a chaotic and belated response to West Africa's Ebola epidemic last year.

A street performer carries a child in a basket after performing a street show at Noida.

Image: A street performer carries a child in a basket after performing a street show at Noida. Photograph: Parivartan Sharma/Reuters

"We could have made this epidemic smaller," Bill Gates said. Aid group Doctors Without Borders "is the only one to come out of this with an A."

He said, however, that the WHO is doing a good job of being self-critical about its Ebola response.

"I hope we use this epidemic to learn for the next one, because there will be a next one," Gates added.

Sharon Begley in New York
Source: REUTERS
© Copyright 2024 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.