The Gates Foundation has announced that the Organization will be spending a whopping $8.6 Billion, to improve and save the lives of people around the world.
This signifies the foundation’s largest Budget ever amidst ongoing global crises. The audacious budget was aimed at saving and improving lives.
The foundation’s $8.6 billion 2024 budget was formally approved by its board of trustees on January 13.
A careful examination of the budget represents an increase of 4% over last year and a $2 billion increase over the 2021 budget, which comes as global contributions to health in the lowest-income countries are stalling.
Implicitly, the overall aid spending has leveled off, with sub-Saharan African countries saw a nearly 8% decline in aid in 2022, even as they face growing needs and shrinking budgets due to debt and other financial pressures. The foundation is also committed to increasing its annual spending to $9 billion by 2026.
The Gates foundation, works toward the goal of a healthier, more prosperous world for all. With global health budgets in decline overall, a portion of the additional funding will go toward advancing global health innovations that will save and improve the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable people, including new-born babies and pregnant mothers living in low-income communities.
Speaking, Bill Gates, who co-chair the Gates Foundation, noted that, the future of humanity will amount to a mirage without good health. His words: “We can’t talk about the future of humanity without talking about the future of health,” “Every day, new-born babies and young children die simply because of where they were born. Mothers die giving birth, leaving families devastated.
That keeps me up at night. It’s unacceptable, particularly because we have already developed many of the solutions that could save their lives. Building a stronger, more stable world starts with good health.”
The Gates Foundation had earlier in 2000, focused on fighting the world’s greatest inequities, creating programs that address issues such as gender equality, agricultural development, and public education.
A major focus for the foundation has been on reducing inequities in health by funding the development of new tools and strategies to reduce the burden of infectious diseases and the leading causes of child mortality in low-income countries.
With the strong commitments, the world has made tremendous progress in cutting child deaths from more than 9.3 million a year in 2000 to 4.6 million a year in 2022.
Deaths from malaria and HIV were cut in half during the past two decades, and wild polio, which was paralyzing 350,000 children a year, has been reduced to only 12 cases in two countries.
Speaking further, Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation, noted that;
“An investment in global health is an investment in our future. When the world puts money behind proven solutions, it builds stronger, healthier, and more resilient communities for generations to come,” “With low-income countries facing a whole host of challenges, now is the right time to recommit to saving lives and improving livelihoods.”
She however, noted that, despite the phenomenal progress, millions of children in poor countries still die before their fifth birthday of preventable or treatable diseases, and nearly 300,000 women die in childbirth while the tools exist to prevent their deaths. Recalling that, Ninety percent of the 340,000 women who die every year of cervical cancer live in low- and middle-income countries, even though there’s now a highly effective one-dose vaccine that can protect them against it.
She emphasized that, the foundation prioritizes the;
“The Future of Health” noting that in the course of the event at the ongoing World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Bill Gates will showcase several health innovations that the foundation has funded and its partners have been developing that could save the lives of women and children.
He will also address the role that artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies can play in transforming health and improving lives for people living in low-income countries. Gates will call on global leaders, philanthropists, CEOs, and others to help rebuild global trust and solidarity by joining together to save the most vulnerable people.
The foundation predicts that if innovations currently in the R&D pipeline are properly funded, they could help cut maternal deaths by 40% in the lowest-income countries by the end of the decade, and further drive down preventable child deaths.
To emphasize that many solutions are simple, portable, and already close at hand, Gates and other foundation leaders will carry backpacks in Davos emblazoned with “The Future of Health” and filled with examples of products that could save millions of lives.
They include a package of tools that can save 65,000 women by 2030 from dying of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH).
It is known fact that PPH is the biggest cause of maternal death worldwide. The package includes a simple and inexpensive drape to better measure blood loss. When paired with interventions in a trial, these tools decreased cases of severe bleeding by 60%.
A one-dose HPV vaccine that helps protect against one of the most common cancers among women worldwide.
Millions of girls in low- and middle-income countries haven’t received HPV vaccines, while most girls in high-income countries have.
As much as 90% of cervical cancer deaths are in these countries. With a one-dose HPV vaccine, the barriers to vaccination are much lower, and efficacy remains high and lasting.
Modeling estimates that more than 110 million cases of cervical cancer can be averted as the one-dose regimen is rolled out, in part through Gavi.
According to Mark Suzman, Gates Foundation CEO;
“The Gates Foundation measures impact in terms of lives saved and opportunities provided to the poorest,” “This new high-water mark for our budget will further our mission to help create a world where everyone has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life.”
