Bill and Melinda Gates used the second installment of their annual “Goalkeepers” report to raise fresh alarms that the current political environment and other factors making it difficult to sustain momentum for humanitarian achievements.
“To put it bluntly,” they said, “decades of stunning progress in the fight against poverty and disease may be on the verge of stalling — the poorest parts of the world are growing faster than everywhere else; more babies are being born in the places where it’s hardest to lead a healthy and productive life.”
The statement by the Gateses is, in part, an answer to their leading question from the report’s first essay called “Is Poverty Inevitable?” They usually like to express optimism first by highlighting “mind-blowing improvements in the human condition,” they said, but so much more needs to be done.
This year’s report, released Tuesday, is a follow-up from last year’s inaugural analysis that graded the world’s ability to improve the lives of people in poorer nations, especially sub-Saharan Africa. The reports are intended to be a companion to the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals, established in 2015, which aim to make the world a better place by 2030.
On the list are efforts to eliminate hunger, slow HIV rates, and reduce inequalities, among other goals.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest U.S. grant maker.
Pushing for More Resources
The report’s release Tuesday is a prelude to the second annual Goalkeepers event, which the Gateses will host in New York on September 25 and 26. They plan to release updates each year through 2030.
In a conference call with reporters, Bill Gates said the key to future success is to promote gradual progress. He also said it’s important to push local governments to expand their policies.
“In Nigeria, the overall level of government tax collection is the lowest in the world, and so the resources that are available to invest look to be much lower than you need across the various functions of government,” he said. “You have to both raise the revenue and raise the quality to get the impact.”
In addition, Gates said investing in the human capital of young Africans will help develop the population and grow the at-risk nations out of poverty.
“The big question, is will this generation have the investments made in them,” he said.
Focus on Africa
Not everything from the report reflects doom and gloom. Since 2000, when the foundation was formed, 50 million lives have been saved due to advancements in medicine, the Gateses wrote. And the share of people living below the extreme poverty line has decreased from 36 percent to 9 percent since 1990. “People may still be poor,” the report said, “but they can begin to think beyond mere survival and look to the future.”
With those positives, however, come other concerns.
Extreme poverty, while it has decreased over all, is becoming heavily concentrated in sub-Saharan African countries. The Gates Foundation predicts that by 2050, 86 percent of the extremely poor will be found in this region. The population of Africa is expected to more than double during that time to at least 2.2 billion people, U.N. reports show.
Tackling extreme poverty is a multipronged issue. Violence, political instability, and climate change are among the factors that make it challenging.
The “Goalkeepers” report, nonetheless, expects to find a successful turnaround for Africa’s poorest countries by focusing on the under-25 population, which is nearly 60 percent of all Africans, compared with 27 percent of Europeans.
“Investing in young people’s health and education is the best way for a country to unlock productivity and innovation,” the report said.
The report also stresses the importance of empowering women to have only as many children as they want, which could stabilize the population growth. Currently, women in sub-Saharan Africa have 0.7 more children than they want, according to the report.
The report praises first lady Melania Trump for her upcoming trip to Africa, saying it will help raise the profile of the needs there.
Political Challenges
The political atmosphere surrounding the 17 goals was contentious during last year’s event. This year is no different.
For example, President Trump’s budget released last May would shrink U.S. commitments to funding overseas HIV programs, among other efforts important to the Gates Foundation.
Gates suggested his philanthropic efforts will help provide a safety net when national governments aren’t willing to fund humanitarian projects.
“As far as the overall level of foreign aid, we still have a lot of concerns about that,” Gates said. “For the United States, we are very thankful that the Congress has maintained these things as priorities, despite the executive branch recommending very substantial cuts.”
