International
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Uniting to fight neglected tropical diseases
This Monday at 11 am GMT you can watch a historic live event that demonstrates how building partnerships between aid agencies and pharmaceutical companies can make big differences in health and development for millions of people living in the world’s poorest countries. World experts including Bill Gates and Dr Margaret Chan (Director of the World Health Organisation) will be taking part in a live webcast from London to discuss neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) – diseases which effect 1 billion poor people around the world.
You can watch the event on this page, and follow the buzz online using #NTD, #NTDs and #partnership hashtags. We will also be tweeting updates on the @ONEcampaign account.
Over the past week there have been a number of events celebrating the progress that’s being made towards saving lives – Bill Gates has published his annual letter and defended aid spending during difficult times at the European Parliament, and the Global Fund has celebrated 10 years of saving over 7.7 million lives.
But there’s still much more to do, the partners speaking at this event aim to combat NTDs and drive progress toward the World Health Organization’s goals for control or elimination by 2020.
The event will feature:
- Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization
- CEOs of Nine Leading Pharmaceutical Companies
- Bill Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Senior Government Officials from Tanzania, Mozambique, Brazil and Zanzibar
- Stephen O’Brien, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, UK Department for International Development
- Dr. Bernard Pécoul, Executive Director, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative
- Dr. Ariel Pablos-Méndez, Assistant Administrator for Global Health, US Agency for International Development
- Dr. Caroline Anstey, Managing Director, World Bank
- Moderated by: Riz Khan, Al Jazeera English
We have the opportunity to help the more than one billion people affected by NTDs lead healthier, more productive lives. And by working collaboratively, we can achieve more together than any one of us could on our own.
For more about neglected tropical diseases check out http://www.unitingtocombatntds.org
Required reading in Davos
As the world’s business, political and media elite made their annual trek to the Swiss town of Davos – blanketed in more snow than I have seen there for a decade – conventional wisdom had it they should have all the lightheartedness of a gray, winter, Alpine sky. The Eurozone crisis, the difficulty of getting tough political decisions in the United States, and worries in some of the champions among emerging markets – the chance of a property crash in China, for example, or of runaway inflation in India – were all said to contribute to a note of pessimism among Davos devotees.
But even if you think that the prophets of global economic doom and gloom are right – I don’t, as it happens, but that’s another story – there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful about the state of the world. Some of them were collected in Bill Gates’s annual letter on the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which should be required reading for the Davos crowd. The letter detailed some of the extraordinary advances that have been made in global health, for example, over the past decades, with the roll out of vaccines on a massive scale, tremendous progress, especially in India, on the eradication of polio, and, indeed, on the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS. I was particularly pleased that Bill’s letter made mention of the rotavirus vaccine that GAVI is rolling out to tackle one of the leading causes of diarrhea – an appalling killer of children, and one which has rarely gotten the public or political dissension that it deserves.
Of course, the letter pointed out how much more needed to be done so that all people, everywhere, could live lives of equal dignity. More funding needs to be devoted to research and development in agriculture – a key goal of ONE this year. Those of us who advocate for increased resources to go to the world’s poor appreciate that in tough economic times, we have our work cut out for us. But when generous funders like the Gates Foundation and taxpayers around the world have done so much to combat extreme poverty and preventable disease in the last ten years, now would be the very worst moment to give up the fight. That fight is more likely to be won, as Bill pointed out in a passage on the need for more resources for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria that is worth quoting at length, if citizens in the rich world understood just how much could be done with comparatively few resources.
“Between 2011 and 2013, assuming that all donors honor their commitments, the Global Fund will disburse $10 billion. This is a $2 billion increase, but not nearly the $12–$14 billion that is needed and was hoped for. Citizens of donor countries should know about the difference their generosity has made. The cost of keeping a patient on AIDS drugs has been coming down, and it looks like getting it to $300 per patient per year should be achievable. That will mean every $300 that governments invest in the Global Fund will put another person on treatment for a year. Every $300 that’s not forthcoming will represent a person taken off treatment. That’s a very clear choice. I believe that if people understood the choice, they would ask their government to save more lives.”
Watch Bill Gates and Hans Rosling LIVE on the challenge of fighting global poverty
It’s been a busy few days for Bill Gates. After presenting Living Proof yesterday in Brussels, he is today in London for the launch of his Annual Letter, which he will discuss with an audience of students and international development experts.
The live online event, hosted by our friends at the Global Poverty Project, marks the launch of its Global Poverty Ambassadors Initiative, which invites people from all walks of life to engage their communities in the campaign against extreme poverty.
Hosted by the London School of Economics (LSE), Bill Gates will cover the key themes of his 2012 Annual Letter, including how innovations in agriculture and health are driving down extreme poverty worldwide. He will be joined by renowned Swedish statistician and advisor to the Global Poverty Project, Hans Rosling.
Elisha London, UK Director of the Global Poverty Project said:
“We are thrilled that Bill Gates has chosen the launch of the Global Poverty Ambassadors to deliver his annual letter. His vision and commitment is an inspiration for these Ambassadors who will mobilise their own communities in the fight to end extreme poverty”.
You can watch the event live at 13.30 GMT / 14.30 CET on the Global Poverty Project website and follow the conversation and tweet questions to #BillsLetter
My 2012 Annual Letter
In this guest post, Bill Gates discusses the themes of his annual letter, which looks back on progress made and lessons learned in the fight against extreme poverty. Originally published on Impatient Optimists, blog of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
My job is to learn about global health and development—and to travel to poor countries to meet farmers who can’t grow enough food, mothers who can’t keep children healthy, and heroes in the field who are doing something about those emergencies. Very few people can devote the time to really understand these complex problems. Even fewer can actually meet the people who are struggling to overcome them. That is why I write an annual letter every year.
I want people to know about the amazing progress we’ve made. I also want them to see how much more progress it will take before we live in a truly equitable world.
In this year’s letter, I focus on food and agriculture (though I also provide updates about all the global health and U.S. education work we do). When I was in high school, a popular book called The Population Bomb painted a nightmarish vision of mass starvation on a planet that has outgrown its carrying capacity. That prediction was wrong, in large part because researchers developed much more productive seeds and other tools that helped poor farmers in many parts of the world multiply their yields. As a result, the percentage of people in extreme poverty has been cut in half in my lifetime. That’s the amazing progress part of the story, and not enough people know it.
But there’s the progress-yet-to-come part, and people need to know that, too. There are still more than 1 billion people who live in extreme poverty. They are located primarily in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and they live on the edge of starvation. There is an irony in this, because most of them are farmers. We can help these 1 billion achieve self-sufficiency, just like we helped billions before them, but we stopped trying. At a certain point, the sense of crisis around food dissipated, and the proportion of foreign aid dedicated to agriculture dropped from one-fifth to less than one-twentieth.
My hope for my annual letter is that it helps people connect to the choice we all have to make. Relatively small investments changed the future for hundreds of millions of small farm families. The choice now is this: Do we continue those investments so that the 1 billion people who remain poor benefit? Or do we tolerate a world in which one in seven people is undernourished, stunted, and in danger of starving to death?
In times of tight budgets, we have to pick our priorities. It’s clear that in this particular time, we’re in danger of deciding that aid to the poorest is not one of them. I am confident, however, that if people understand what their aid has already accomplished—and its potential to accomplish so much more—they’ll insist on doing more, not less. That is why I wrote my letter. I hope you’ll take the time to read it and share it with your friends and family.
I’ve invited students from around the world to write their own annual letters too. You can send your letter, or any questions you have for me, to annualletter@gatesfoundation.org. I’ll be answering and talking about the ideas in your letters in a live webcast on February 2 on my Facebook page.
India celebrates one year polio-free
Friday the 13th is a day known for superstition, fear, and bad luck. But today, the global health community in India attained a milestone that will ensure that we remember this Friday the 13th as a day of progress and hope. As of today, India has gone an entire year without a case of polio. In technical-speak, this means that India has officially interrupted transmission of the virus and is no longer considered an endemic country, leaving only three countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria) remaining in the world with endemic status.
Experts have long considered India to be one of the toughest places in the world to fight and eradicate polio. After all, India is neither a small nor homogenous place, and just two years ago, India had 741 cases of polio—the most in the world. How did they achieve this milestone?
- They immunized, and they immunized again: India held two National Immunization Days (NIDs) in 2011, and during each NID, an amazing 2.5 million vaccinators delivered polio vaccines to more than 172 million children. For children who weren’t reached by the NIDs, India organized 7 Sub-National Immunization Days to focus in on more remote and high-risk areas.
- They innovated: Indians didn’t just rely on traditional vaccine education and delivery methods. They met parents and children where they were—at bus stops, in construction sites, on motorbikes. They also fostered pressure and incentives for their health care workers, ensuring accountability and consistency in their delivery program.
- They fought stigma and misconception: Particularly in Muslim sections of India where concerns about vaccines were more common, polio eradication programs engaged religious leaders at all levels to build trust among parents for this safe, effective health intervention.
- They led from within: Though the role of groups including the GPEI partners and the Gates Foundation can’t be overstated, India is a success story because Indians have also stepped up. Since the National Polio Surveillance Project was established in 1997 by the Indian Government and the WHO, the program has grown, become more effective and targeted, and has built a platform that now allows for greater progress on other diseases. Local stakeholders including teachers, religious leaders, and health workers have been on the front lines of the fight. And critically, the Indian government has financed the vast majority of the eradication effort with its own resources—an example for other emerging economies to follow.
And why, as an Africa-focused organization, should we pay so much attention to this achievement? For many in the global health community who often feel like the challenges are endless, this shows that real progress is possible—and not just in the “easy” places. This milestone should rejuvenate global efforts to eradicate polio, including from the last remaining endemic country in Africa (Nigeria) as well as other countries which had once eliminated the disease but have seen a resurgence in recent years (including Angola, Chad, and the DRC). At a time when vaccination rates are on the decline in some regions, each successful immunization campaign—and the press generated around it—also helps to reinforce the safety and value of vaccines for parents around the world. The tactics India used to achieve this goal should also serve as a lesson for other countries and other global health challenges; persistence, innovation, and country ownership are fundamental to effective development programs, and will remain so long after polio is eradicated.
Please join me in congratulating the millions of people who have dedicated time, resources, and political will toward making this a momentous—and happy—Friday the 13th!
Fighting pneumonia in Bangladesh
To mark World Pneumonia Day today we are presenting the first of three special reports from Dhaka, where UK Parliamentarian Jim Dobbin MP highlights his experiences visiting Dhaka’s main healthcare centres.
I am currently in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with a senior delegation of UK parliamentarians looking at the work of the GAVI Alliance and the impact that vaccines are having in the developing world. The GAVI Alliance is one of the UK Government’s headline organistions and I have followed its progress for many years. I am especially interested in its work in rolling out life-saving vaccines in developing countries where 85% of the world’s unvaccinated children live. The results have been staggering to date: since its creation in 2000 it has immunised 288 million children and saved 5 million lives and is aiming to save more than 4 million more by 2015. Therefore when I was given the opportunity to see this work in action in a Dhaka children’s hospital and urban slum I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Going into the visit I thought of a similar visit I undertook in Kenya, where I saw crowded wards of whole families huddled together in unsanitary conditions. Medical waste sat in heaps on the floor and sick children ran around the hospital. That was a very moving visit and highlighted to me just how big a gulf there is between the richest nations and poorest.
But, ever since I arrived in Dhaka you can tell that it is a bustling city on the rise. This same sense was evident in the Dhaka Shishu Hospital. I arrived and was met by Professor Samir Saha, the Head of the Microbiology at the hospital. He took us around the wards and the laboratories and explained the work they were undertaking. His team are a pioneering group helping to improve the diagnosis of infections and disease surveillance and to better document the impact of immunisation in Bangladesh. We also met the Government Expanded Programme for Immunisation Team and heard about the great strides they had been making over the past few years. You cannot hide the fact that childhood mortality still greatly affects the country; in fact 55,000 lives every year are claimed by pneumonia. In the hospital wards, we saw the young children fighting this terrible disease, which along with diarrhoea accounts for nearly 40% of all childhood mortality in the developing world. We also saw a the impact of malnutrition and poor healthcare education, which leads to children going undiagnosed and not receiving the vital treatment they need.
But overall it was actually a picture of great hope and improvement. I was delighted to see the progress that Bangladesh has been making in immunisation with the support of the GAVI Alliance. We witnessed a well run and effective immunisation session; heard from maternal health workers about their drive to educate mothers about the healthcare of their children. We visited the central vaccine store for Bangladesh and heard about their checks and balances that ensure that vaccines are stored and distributed correctly.
Bangladesh is just one of many countries benefitting in this way. Thanks to the funding from the UK and other donors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the excellent work of the GAVI Alliance is being replicated across the developing world. Access to life-saving vaccines has been delivered to countries 10-15 years sooner than would have otherwise been possible. Nicaragua became the first GAVI-eligible country to introduce the life-saving pneumococcal vaccine and it is now being used in 15 developing countries and has already reached more than three million children with another 10 million expected to receive the vaccine in 2012. In fact today, Malawi will become the 16th GAVI-supported country to introduce the vaccine.
Therefore the picture is increasingly encouraging in Bangladesh and across the globe, but there are still challenges. With an increasingly close relationship between the major donors and aid providers in the world we can continue to move forward and provide successful vaccinations to those that really need them.
21st Century Development: Innovation with Impact
While leaders meet at the G20 summit in Cannes, Bill Gates was invited to speak about financing for development.
In his report, he makes the case for why we must continue investing in the livelihoods of poor people—and he suggests some innovative ways to do it.
In the report, Bill Gates says:
“Leadership from the G20 is critically important right now. The global economic situation is as fragile as it has been at any time in the past 50 years. As leaders of the G20, you face a difficult challenge: How do you resolve the immediate crisis while continuing to make smart investments in long-term growth and improved living conditions?
In the past 50 years, a billion people were saved from starvation by advances in agriculture. Health has improved in stunning ways, thanks to innovations like vaccines. In 1960, 20 million children under the age of 5 died. In 2010, fewer than 8 million children under 5 died. The world population more than doubled during this time, which means the rate of death has been cut by over 80 percent. Aid generosity has played an important role in these successes
Despite the current economic crisis, I am optimistic that we can build on the generosity and innovations that worked in the past. The group of countries able to contribute resources to development is larger than ever before. The number of people who can spur innovations is much greater than in the past. For these reasons, I am convinced we can create a new era in development.”
Focusing on the solution, not the problem
Bill and Melinda Gates have always approached the fight against hunger, poverty and disease a little differently — instead of focusing on the problem, they focus on the solution and narrow in on what’s working to get things done. This positive spirit is embodied in their foundation’s new and aptly named blog, Impatient Optimists.
The goal is to get readers engaged in a dialogue about solutions to worldwide and domestic problems, reflect the values of inspiration and urgency, and create an entire community of impatient optimists around the world.
The blog — or digital media hub, if you will — offers the tools to get people started on the right track. There videos, infographics and photos to help bring the issues to life. There are success stories and case studies. There are positive stories from the ground. And there will be lots of opportunities for brainstorming and open dialogue.
As Melinda Gates says, “I am convinced that through the telling of these stories, we discover what connects us. We can work together to create new ways of addressing the world’s most pressing problems. Social media is a tool for dialogue, community-sharing, and action.”
Join this community of impatient optimists who believe that the first step in changing the world is through educating oneself and stimulating dialogue. Luckily, in today’s digital world, being in-the-know is only a click away.
Malaria: We are making progress
How is this for some Living Proof – MORE THAN 500 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE BEEN REACHED WITH ANTIMALARIAL BEDNETS IN THE PAST 2 YEARS ALONE.
It’s easy to read, but here is a nice little interactive map by our friends at the Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation that visually represents the statistics. It shows how far the international community has come, for example saving 580,547 lives in Nigeria, and how much work we still need to do to completely eradicate this deadly yet preventable disease.
There are 3 main components to this infographic: you can view the progress of individual countries, an explanation of the life saving methods that are used, and a comparison of the number of global lives saved with and without increased interventions such as bed nets, case management and anti-malarial drugs.
You can find the interactive infographic here. Please take a look and pass it on to your friends and family.
A reason to celebrate this Mother’s Day
As Mother’s Day is marked in the UK, Melinda Gates explains why we have an extra reason to celebrate.
Mother’s Day is usually a joyous occasion—and this year we have even more reason to celebrate. Mothers and their children are surviving today at higher rates than at any other point in history. In fact, just since 1990, the number of children who die before their fifth birthday has declined from more than 12 million per year to slightly over 8 million.
I feel fortunate because I get to see this progress firsthand. On a recent trip to Nairobi, I spoke with a group of women about their children. One mother told me, “I want to bring every good thing to one before I have another.” It reinforced what I always hear on my trips to different countries around the globe—that mothers everywhere have the same goal for our children, a successful future.
So, what’s behind this success? Over the past decade, innovators around the world have developed new tools and technologies– vaccines, drugs, and bednets to name a few—which have been integral in saving millions of lives.
But the innovation driving this success is not just limited to these stunning breakthroughs in science, in technology; it can be creative without being high-tech. I’m talking about pioneering ways of changing behavior, working with communities and sharing these new ideas with women in the poorest areas of the world.
Take breastfeeding, for example. Simply put, breastfeeding is a life-saving act. We know exclusive breastfeeding – when the newborn is fed only with breast milk and nothing else in the first six months – is one of the best ways to save baby’s lives.
When I was in Dowa, Malawi last year I visited the Dowa District Hospital. Exclusive breastfeeding is a core project of the government, one supported by Save the Children’s Saving Newborn Lives Program. The initiative encourages women to give birth in a health clinic and then provides them with three home visits from healthcare workers, in the weeks following the birth. These visits help mothers learn about how to care for their children, including exclusively breastfeeding. Programs like these aren’t created in a laboratory, yet help mothers realize they can significantly improve the health of their newborns without any new technologies.
The British government and citizens have been true leaders around these types of health innovations for women and children. I had the pleasure of meeting with Andrew Mitchell recently and was impressed with his remarkable passion. I’ve met with a lot of ministers over the years, but I don’t often see the dedication like that of Minister Mitchell. It’s also truly amazing to see the way Britain has stood by its international commitments on foreign aid in the midst of the current global financial crisis.
Investing in the health of women and children is the right thing to do. If we keep innovating, we’ll make faster and faster progress and achieve more with our investments. We’ll save the lives of mothers and their children in even greater numbers. And we’ll help make sure that motherhood is always a joy, for every mother, everywhere.
I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate Mother’s Day.
This post was first published on the UK Department for International Development (DFID) blog
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About the Blog
The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
TAGS: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Neglected Tropical Diseases, World Health Organization