The billionaire, who met with Chancellor Angela Merkel, described himself in Berlin as an 'impatient optimist' against world poverty.
Germany promised him another 14 million euros (20 million dollars) in funding for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), a Geneva-based public-private partnership which aims to eradicate serious diseases by mass vaccination.
Gates heads the 30-billion-dollar Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which spearheads health and education programmes in poor nations.
In a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Berlin's Hotel Ritz Carlton, Gates urged rich nations to increase development aid to 0.7 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
That would provide enough money to vaccinate every child in the world against lethal illnesses and ensure clean water for all. Everyone at risk could sleep under mosquito nets and the income of those living in extreme poverty could be tripled, he added.
Officials in Berlin said this week that German development aid currently amounts to 0.38 per cent of GDP, barely half the target.
Officially, Germany speaks of reaching 0.7 per cent by 2015 but politicians concede such a sharp increase is not expected.
The world's banks, mining, drug and other companies should invest much more in foreign aid, Bill Gates, the world's leading philanthropist told European MEPs on Tuesday.
Gates, who is touring Europe celebrating the success of US and other aid programmes, said that private philanthropy only contributed 2% to world aid flows but that this could be increased. "We could grow it. Philanthropy contributes more than its proportional share. It will never offset anything done by big governments but … you would expect people of wealth to do it more. We need more philanthropists – drug companies, banks, mobile phone, mineral companies," he said.
The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, now with assets of around $22bn, has invested mostly in child health but Gates said one of the next great challenges would be to improve the productivity of poor farmers as world populations grow and climate change affects more people.
"Over 75% of the poor are farmers. If we can help them be more productive … we can help them but also deal with world food challenges. We see that with world food prices. We can help [them] more than double output. African output is one-third of that in the US," he said.
The foundation has been criticised for spending on controversial GM technologies and on large-scale farming rather than supporting small-scale sustainable farming, but Gates said that increasing productivity was "very pro-environment". "We invest in any technology that avoids starvation. We have said yes to [some GMO] groups in Africa. Most [of our investment] is in conventional breeding."
Gates told the MEPs he expected improvements in vaccines to halve the number of children who die before the age of five in the next 15 years. "Fifteen years ago, I saw the health issue made the biggest difference. If you improve the health of a family, then parents choose voluntarily to have less children. Health improvements help with environment, food and jobs. These investments have had dramatic effects. What is incredible is that all the things that kill children are vaccine-preventable. In the next five years we can cut the deaths of children under five to 4 million a year."
Gates, who is touring Europe celebrating the success of US and other aid programmes, said that private philanthropy only contributed 2% to world aid flows but that this could be increased. "We could grow it. Philanthropy contributes more than its proportional share. It will never offset anything done by big governments but … you would expect people of wealth to do it more. We need more philanthropists – drug companies, banks, mobile phone, mineral companies," he said.
The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, now with assets of around $22bn, has invested mostly in child health but Gates said one of the next great challenges would be to improve the productivity of poor farmers as world populations grow and climate change affects more people.
"Over 75% of the poor are farmers. If we can help them be more productive … we can help them but also deal with world food challenges. We see that with world food prices. We can help [them] more than double output. African output is one-third of that in the US," he said.
The foundation has been criticised for spending on controversial GM technologies and on large-scale farming rather than supporting small-scale sustainable farming, but Gates said that increasing productivity was "very pro-environment". "We invest in any technology that avoids starvation. We have said yes to [some GMO] groups in Africa. Most [of our investment] is in conventional breeding."
Gates told the MEPs he expected improvements in vaccines to halve the number of children who die before the age of five in the next 15 years. "Fifteen years ago, I saw the health issue made the biggest difference. If you improve the health of a family, then parents choose voluntarily to have less children. Health improvements help with environment, food and jobs. These investments have had dramatic effects. What is incredible is that all the things that kill children are vaccine-preventable. In the next five years we can cut the deaths of children under five to 4 million a year."
0 comments:
Post a Comment