Describing both the need for improvements in global health and the technologies that could create those gains, Bill Gates on Tuesday characterized himself as an "impatient optimist."
For those that know him, both terms describe him well.
Bill Gates talks about efforts to fight Malaria as part of a broad global health speech on Tuesday.
(Credit: CNET News)In the 15 months since he left full-time work at Microsoft, Gates has focused on his philanthropic efforts--which focus on areas where there is great suffering as well as the means to alleviate that suffering through attention and increased resources. But, too often, change is not coming quickly enough.
"When it comes to global health, Bill and I are optimists--but we're impatient optimists," Melinda Gates said in a statement ahead of a speech on Tuesday. "The world is getting better, but it's not getting better for everyone, and it's not getting better fast enough."
Melinda Gates pointed to a program in South Africa where antiviral treatments are helping those living with HIV, but she said that for every two getting the treatment, there are five others that are missing out.
"That's the kind of thing that makes us impatient optimists," she said.
In the Washington, D.C. address, which is being carried live over the Internet, the Gateses spoke of areas where change is taking place, pointing to some of the "Living Proof" success stories that his foundation has highlighted on its Web site recently.
In his speech, Bill Gates noted that the U.S. government has increased its spending on global health each of the last 10 years and said that the investment is paying off.
"We're here to say two words you don't often hear about government programs," Bill Gates said. "Thank you."
He pointed to what he called the most beautiful picture he had ever seen--a chart of childhood deaths worldwide that shows death falling by more than half since 1960, when 20 million kids a year died annually.
But, he said, even the current level of 9 million childhood deaths a year is too many. Gates called on policymakers to commit to reducing by nearly half the number of children that die each year, from the present level of 9 million per year to less than 5 million by 2025.
"U.S. support has already helped to reduce deaths of young children by more than 50 percent in the past 50 years," Bill Gates said in a statement ahead of the speech. "If we keep up our commitment, it's possible to cut child mortality in half again--just 15 years from now. What's more, we can do it with proven interventions that already exist."
Despite the global economic challenges, the foundation has increased its own spending this year.
In particular, the Gateses advocate a focus on fighting malaria, vaccinating 90 percent of children against preventable diseases, providing basic health services to three quarters of the world's pregnant women and newborns, and treating diarrhea and pneumonia.
"A few interventions make a dramatic difference," Bill Gates said, showing computer modeling that shows that work in those areas alone could allow the number of global childhood deaths to drop below five million per year. "This is well within the realm of possibility."
Melinda Gates noted the development of a vaccine against rotavirus--a major global health threat, but one that remained invisible because it wasn't a factor in developed countries such as the United States.
"It's a fantastic success," Melinda Gates said. "We've created a vaccine for the poorest children on the planet and it's just beginning to reach them."
One of the challenges, though, is that the vaccine needs to be refrigerated throughout its journey from manufacture to delivery to those being immunized.
In the speech, Melinda Gates told the story of a young HIV-infected girl who went from very ill to robust after a year on retroviral treatment and brought out a Namibian a capella group that tours the country with songs that educate people about HIV. Bill Gates talked about some of the methods being used to fight Malaria and other diseases.
But he also saved some of his words to answer those skeptical of his efforts, worried that the aid was only fueling corruption or actually holding back long-term self sufficiency.
"The goal here is to help countries become self-sufficient," Gates said, noting that onetime aid recipients like Thailand and Brazil are now net contributors. "Aid done properly can help a country unleash their potential."
Not all of the criticisms are myths, though, Melinda Gates said. She noted that very little progress has been made in some areas, such as protecting the health of new mothers and newborns. Roughly half a million women in poorer countries die during childbirth, while one in 32 children in the developing world die in their first month of life.
Bill and Melinda Gates spoke earlier on Tuesday on ABC's World News Tonight, talking about the role that just a couple of new vaccines can have in saving millions of lives.
And, while most of his time is going toward his foundation work, Bill Gates said he still spends time at his other job--at Microsoft.
"I love the work that Microsoft does," Bill Gates said in an excerpt of the interview posted to ABC's Web site. "I love the magic of software."
Here is one of the foundation's Living Proof videos:
Although the economic crisis won't change his focus on global health and U.S. education, Bill Gates said the woes are making his work harder.
In particular, Gates said that beyond the prospect of lower aid budgets, the biggest factor in reducing disease and hunger is actually the underlying growth in the area in question--something that is now stalled globally.
Bill and Melinda Gates visit demonstration plots at the IITA Research Station in Abuja, Nigeria in October 2006.
(Credit: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)"Economic success has been this phenomenal thing," Gates said. "Whenever that clock is running slower or even briefly goes into a period where it is going back, it is really a very negative thing. It blocks a lot that is important."
Gates' comments came during a conference call with reporters, following the release of a public letter on the foundation's progress.
For 2009, the Gates Foundation is increasing its spending, and Gates said he would encourage other foundations to see if they can do the same amid growing need. That said, he doesn't see his foundation being able to increase its budget next year, if its assets continue to decline.
"Certainly, if the market (in 2009 is) as bad (as it was) in 2008, we would not increase, going into (2010)," Gates said. "We have the same uncertainty that everyone else does."
As for overall priorities, Gates defended the areas his foundation has worked on, such as focusing on diseases that affect the world's poorest populations. He noted that it remains the case that there are opportunities to save a human life for less than $100 a year.
"To me, that's very compelling," Gates said. "That investment should be made. I don't think the economic crisis changes that."
Gates was clear that he has no crystal ball, but he said it will likely take years for the economy to correct itself after years of unsustainably high spending rates, particularly in the United States.
"If you have been on a spending binge, it can take a number of years before those ratios come back in," he said.
Although he said things are different now than in the Great Depression, he also noted that there are many factors putting pressure on the economy, many of which feed on one another.
"If Company A lays people off, that impacts...Company B," Gates said. "We are just seeing impact after impact, as that rolls through the economy."
Gates' own company, Microsoft, announced its first-ever companywide layoffs on Thursday, saying it planned to cut up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, with 1,400 of the job cuts being made last week.
In a video on the foundation's Web site, Gates talked a little about the overlap he has found between his two jobs.
"I didn't know if the foundation would be as magical," Gates said. "Those same key elements are there--the ability to do big breakthroughs--absolutely."
In a public letter on Monday, Bill Gates took stock of both the economy and his foundation's efforts to improve education and combat global health issues.
As for the economy, Gates said that he hoped to be able to look back two years from now and say that the crisis "was something that was short-term and that has passed" but said that he expects "the effects of the crisis will last beyond that."
Bill and Melinda Gates, co-chairs of the foundation that bears their names, get a look at a cassava root at a research station in Abuja, Nigeria, in October 2006.
(Credit: Courtesy of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation / Prashant Panjiar)The economic woes took their toll on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which saw its assets drop by a fifth last year, Gates said in the letter (PDF). Still, the group plans to up its 2009 spending to $3.8 billion, a full 7 percent of the foundation's assets and up from $3.3 billion in 2008. (The IRS requires foundations to spend 5 percent of their assets each year.)
"The global recession and market turmoil are forcing everyone to take a hard look at their plans," Gates wrote in the letter. "Businesses and consumers are cutting back on spending. The 50-year-long credit expansion that fueled high spending levels, particularly in the United States, has turned into a credit contraction."
That, he said, has led governments to situations where they have budget shortfalls at the same time there is an increased demand for government services.
The letter, which Gates said will become a yearly tradition, comes about six months after Gates left full-time work at Microsoft to devote more time to the foundation. The letter also goes into detail on the foundation's work in both global health and education, pointing to successes and failures on each front.
Gates praised the Obama administration for maintaining its commitment to education at the same time tax revenues are coming up short and there is a need for short-term stimulus to the economy. He also called for continued foreign aid.
"I hope the United States and other rich countries will continue to increase their aid, and when I meet with political leaders I encourage them to do so," Gates said, in particular praising Britain's Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Gates will get a chance to bend the ear of the world's political elite later this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Government leaders expected at Davos include Brown, who succeeded Blair as Britain's prime minister; Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao; Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; and Japanese Premier Taro Aso.
"Although it will be difficult to keep aid-related issues on the front page during this crisis, we need to meet the challenge by making sure the success stories are told and making sure that inequity that is out of sight, is not out of mind," Gates wrote.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said on Monday that longtime Microsoft executive Jeff Raikes will be the organization's next chief executive.
Raikes announced in January he would be stepping down as president of Microsoft's Business Division, the unit that includes Office. In an interview with CNET News.com at the time, he had said he expected his next job would be outside the technology arena.
Jeff Raikes will become the CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in September.
(Credit: Microsoft )"This is truly a dream job," Raikes said in a conference call with reporters. Although Raikes is known for his work at Microsoft, he has also been active in charitable efforts in the Seattle area, particularly the United Way. "I certainly have much to learn, but being able to work with such a tremendous team will be exciting for me."
Raikes, who will start September 2, succeeds Patty Stonesifer, who also once worked for Microsoft. The foundation announced in February that Stonesifer would be shifting to a new role.
Asked about the thinking in naming another Microsoft executive to head the foundation, co-chair Melinda Gates said that was something she and Bill Gates spent a lot of time thinking about. She noted that the foundation used an executive search firm and looked at 150 candidates before settling on Raikes.
"Microsoft and the foundation are clearly two separate entities," Melinda Gates said. But in the end, she said, they decided that what the foundation needed was a strong leader with ambition and a proven track record of handling complex projects.
Raikes said he sees a lot of common ground between his work at Microsoft and what he will do at the foundation.
"At Microsoft (we use) the magic of software to take on interesting challenges," Raikes said. "Here you have a similar situation where the use of science and technology and systems thinking is applied to take on very tough problems in society."
While he said he has some getting up to speed to do in terms of the subject area, Raikes said the foundation is in a high-growth mode, looking to grow substantially beyond its current 500-person workforce. He said he learned something about managing large and fast-growing entities during his time at Microsoft.
- The 15 biggest tech disappointments of 2007--PC World lists the top tech letdowns of the year and, not surprisingly Vista tops the list. Zune was No. 11 and Office 2007 was No. 9. Ouch! If it makes Redmond feel any better. Apple's Leopard came in at No. 8.
- Google gets ready to rumble with Microsoft--Another in-depth look at the battle between the two software giants. It's a good read with some revealing anecdotes about what makes the two companies tick. (The New York Times via CNET News.com)
- Study: Googling oneself is more popular--Wow, 53 percent aren't Googling themselves, according to a Pew study. (AP)
- Unintended victims of Gates Foundation generosity--The Los Angeles Times has a lengthy look at the healthcare needs that fall outside of the Gates Foundation's work in Africa, which focuses on AIDS, TB and malaria.
- Microsoft in denial: Google threat is classic disruption--An interesting post by Henry Blodget on the extent of the Google's challenge to Microsoft's core business. (Silicon Alley Insider)
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