Bill and Melinda Gates make the case for investment in global development and vaccines
Bill and Melinda Gates released their traditional annual public letter, styled as a report to Warren Buffett, the legendary investor and their longtime friend who in 2006 committed to donating most of his wealth (over $30 billion) to the Gates Foundation.
The letter stresses the importance of vaccines, calling them one of the best deals in global health spending. It also emphasizes how important it is that women around the world have access to safe and effective contraception as family planning lowers child mortality and enables communities and countries to emerge from poverty.
“We hope this story will remind everyone why foreign aid should remain a priority — because improving lives abroad is in our own national interest as well as the world’s,” Bill and Melinda Gates wrote.
“By preventing the spread of disease, we save lives in other countries and at home. By stimulating economic development, we open new markets for our countries’ goods. By making conflict less likely, we advance our own national security. And by lifting up the poorest, we express the highest values of our nations.”
This annual letter 2017 was inspired by a letter that Buffett wrote to the couple in December 2016. Buffett noted 10 years has passed since he had pledged to give away a huge portion of his massive fortune. Buffett asked the couple to assess how the foundation’s work had gone and where they saw it going. “I…believe it’s important that people better understand why success in philanthropy is measured differently from success in business or government,” Buffett wrote.
The letter celebrated steady and substantial declines over the last quarter century of the number of children worldwide who die in early childhood and a significant increase in the number who are receiving basic childhood vaccines. Bill and Melinda ended on a hopeful note, saying they feel certain the long and hard fight to eradicate polio will soon be over, that malaria will be defeated in their lifetimes and that AIDS will no longer be deadly.
About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people — especially those with the fewest resources — have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.
