Bill Gates' Big Bet for Fighting Poverty

(Washington) – Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, his wife Melinda and their philanthropic foundation are making big bets on the future.

Fifteen years ago, they backed innovative work in health and education as a way to dramatically reduce inequality. This year, the couple is making another big bet: that the lives of people in poor countries will improve faster in the next 15 years than any other time in recent history.

Gates said this progress is possible "if the global community continues to focus on what we know works, by improving the health and well-being of women and children, providing small farmers with the tools they need to increase their productivity, and advancing new technologies and innovations to create a better, more equitable world."

To make this happen, the couple has doubled the amount pledged to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that will help countries achieve UN-backed Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

In an email interview with Caixin, Gates spelled out his ambitious plans for the world's largest charitable foundation and detailed some of the breakthroughs it has made in fighting poverty, disease and hunger.

Gates's foundation has also been active in China since 2007, focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention, tuberculosis treatment and tobacco control. As a growing power, China has contributed to global development and its increasing global engagement has benefited people in other countries, Gates said.

He is also impressed with the country's success in pulling millions out of poverty.

"China's success in lifting more than half a billion people out of poverty in just 30 years is one of the more remarkable stories in my lifetime," Gates said. "And it accounts for much of the world's progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goal on poverty reduction."

To help China continue these efforts, the foundation announced a grant of 110 million yuan to the country's government on October 22 to expand tuberculosis research.

The following are excerpts of Caixin's interview with Gates.

Caixin: This year was the deadline to achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals. As a long-time global advocate for these goals, what are your views on China's progress meeting them? How can it share its experiences with others?

Bill Gates: China's success in lifting more than half a billion people out of poverty in just 30 years is one of the more remarkable stories in my lifetime. It accounts for much of the world's progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goal on poverty reduction. It's great to see China now sharing its experience and expertise with other developing countries in Africa and South Asia.

Agricultural development, for example, has been a driving force in reducing poverty in China. Today, China is a world leader in rice research, and it's lending that expertise to agricultural researchers in Africa and Asia, where rice yields are significantly lower. Our foundation supports China's Green Super Rice program, which is driving development and distribution of new rice varieties tailored to local conditions, with higher yields and the ability to withstand extreme environmental conditions.

The Chinese government's commitment to science and technology has helped domestic poverty reduction, and it's another way China can help advance progress in other developing countries.

What are your views on the UN-backed Sustainable Development Goals that will set the tone for global growth over the next 15 years?

Melinda and I believe these goals will make a big difference, as the world has already done something like this and with great success. Fifteen years ago, world leaders adopted the Millennium Development Goals. It was one of the best ideas for improving lives that I've ever seen. These included just eight goals, which helped focus the world's attention on the most urgent problems – extreme poverty, deaths from preventable causes, gender inequality and lack of access to education for children everywhere.

The Sustainable Development Goals are even more ambitious, with twice as many goals. We are supportive of the new framework and the spirit of the global goals. Given our foundation's priorities and its experience, we'll continue to focus our investments where we believe they can make the greatest impact, addressing the "unfinished agenda" of maternal, newborn and child mortality, eliminating gender inequities that limit the contribution of women, and helping farming families in the poorest countries increase their productivity.

How can China contribute to achieving these goals?

China is a nation with an immediate experience of dealing with many of the challenges of the developing world. It accounts for much of the world's progress made in meeting the Millennium Development Goal on poverty reduction by lifting 600 million out of poverty in just 30 years. And it has led the world, over the last 15 years, in terms of the annual rate of decline of both maternal and child mortality.

China's public health assistance in West Africa during the Ebola epidemic is a sign of the country's growing willingness to take a leading role in tackling health care challenges in developing countries. Its innovation and low-cost manufacturing capacity is producing important technologies for global health, including new TB diagnostics, HPV screening technology, and coolers that can keep vaccines cold and safe, without external refrigeration, for more than a month.

China's increasing engagement in global development policy and financing is also a welcome addition. It played a leading role in the establishment of multilateral financial institutions, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank. China's ambitious plans for international cooperation and its increasingly prominent role in multilateral bodies like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the G20 and other global forums are evidence that China is stepping up as a leader in global development.

What are the most exciting achievements that your foundation has made in the past 15 years? Looking forward, what is the foundation's investment strategy for the next 15 years?

We started our foundation 15 years ago with a belief that we could help reduce poverty and inequality by backing innovative efforts in global health and development. The progress we've seen so far has reinforced that belief. From 1990 to 2015, child mortality has declined by more than half; maternal mortality has reduced by nearly as much; and more than 1 billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty. We think the next 15 years will have more big breakthroughs – new vaccines, hardier crops and other technologies – that help people live healthier and more productive lives. In fact, we're betting on it, quite literally, by investing in partners and projects that we believe will improve the lives of people in poor countries faster in the next 15 years than at any other time in history. It's a big bet, and an ambitious one. But it's achievable if the global community continues to focus on what we know works, by improving the health and well-being of women and children, providing small farmers with the tools they need to increase their productivity, and advancing new technologies and innovations to create a better, more equitable world.

You have set a strict deadline for the Gates foundation to spend its money. Why did you adopt this approach?

Before we even established our foundation, Melinda and I talked a lot about how we were going to take the wealth that we're lucky enough to have and give it back in a way that's most impactful to the world. We believe the best approach is to focus the foundation's work in the 21st century. What that means, specifically, is that the foundation will spend all of its resources within 20 years of our deaths. This underscores our belief that it's important to do as much as possible, as soon as possible, to address the challenges we are focused on, namely eliminating extreme poverty, and improving the health and well-being of people everywhere.

Your foundation has programs in over a 100 countries. How do you ensure that the organization is efficient and transparent?

Melinda and I are deeply engaged in the work of the foundation, and we are always looking for the best ways to make the greatest impact. While efficiency is definitely important, one of the most important things we can do as a foundation is take risks, try new things and invest in areas where others won't or can't. So, our yardstick for measurement is somewhat unique, but we also place a high value on evaluations and measurements to understand what's working well and how we can do things even better.

The foundation's approach to transparency is grounded in our commitment to helping our partners understand what we do and why we do it. This includes sharing information about our strategies, our investments and operations, and financial data about the foundation. Perhaps most importantly, it includes the outcomes of our work, such as research studies, data sets and evaluation results. This information can provide valuable lessons to others working in global health and development. To the extent that this facilitates faster and more well-informed decision-making, it contributes to achieving the impact we seek.

You have backed many innovations to tackle health- and poverty-related issues. What can the market or policymakers do to make sure these innovative solutions reach a larger audience?

Partnerships that align the vision and needs of developing countries, the generosity of government donors, and the expertise of multilateral organizations, civil society and the private sector are often the most effective way to achieve impact. Examples of this include Gavi, the vaccine alliance; the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; and the global polio eradication initiative. Gavi has immunized 500 million children in developing countries, saving 7 million lives. The Global Fund has saved 17 million lives through its work to prevent and treat HIV, TB and malaria. The work of the global polio eradication initiative is on the verge of achieving its goal of eliminating polio worldwide forever.

These kinds of partnerships draw on the expertise and innovation of the private sector to overcome market failures, and the ability of governments to implement huge public health efforts. They are examples of what we can accomplish by working together, and China's increasing engagement in global health and development will make this more possible than ever before.

How can innovation help change the lives of the poor?

Innovation comes in many forms. It can be a discovery in the lab of a better diagnostic method for TB. It can be a new financing mechanism that enables pharmaceutical companies to dramatically lower the cost of drugs and vaccines. It can be a better way of ensuring that health care workers are reaching children in the most remote parts of the world. If I had to pick one thing that's critical to accelerating the reduction of poverty and inequity, it would be more timely data to help us get the right health interventions to the right children in the right places. Earlier this year, we helped launch a 20-year project that will help us gather more accurate data about how, where and why children are dying in developing countries.

(Rewritten by Chen Na)