Gates’ Philanthropic Vision: Billions for African Progress

The billionaire Bill Gates, speaking from the Ethiopian capital, revealed a major plan to use nearly all his $200 billion to help transform Africa. Such a clear commitment from world leaders at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, points to Africa’s great promise and sets the stage for focusing on health and education over the coming 20 years.

According to Gates, the way to help African countries succeed is to invest in health and education which benefits their residents. His message urged upcoming African innovators to adapt new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve healthcare services all over the continent. An approach like this could skip over usual development issues, much like mobile services replaced landlines to change banking systems in Africa.

The development was made at a crucial time, since the world of global aid is undergoing changes and existing sources of funding are uncertain. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who has supported Africa’s growth for many years, is resolving to complete its mission after 20 years. The fact that Gates commits all but 1% of his huge fortune to philanthropy reflects his set objective to influence global changes promptly. Gates has been quoted saying he does not want to die with a lot of money which motivates his fast giving.

The Foundation carefully sets out its strategic plans for Africa to deal with the key reasons for Africa’s underdevelopment and suffering. These include:

• Eradicating preventable maternal and infant mortality: Paying attention to full health care for both mothers-to-be and young children to help them grow and develop healthy from a young age.
• Combating infectious diseases: Putting effort into research, stopping diseases and finding cures so that future generations do not suffer from major health problems.
• Alleviating extreme poverty: Putting into practice programs that help communities and lift many people out of poverty, supporting their financial independence.

Rwanda was named by Gates as an example of Africa adopting and progressing with innovative uses of AI-powered ultrasound to manage pregnancies. He pointed out that Africa’s own development path offers a chance to include advanced innovations from the beginning which would be more difficult to add to systems that already exist.

Many in the philanthropic world are pleased with Gates’ huge pledge, although a few people still doubt its benefits. Alarm has been expressed about the large role these foundations take in global health decisions and the possibility that using charitable status benefits only them financially. Nevertheless, the huge amount of money and the emphasis on basic human well-being in an area with great challenges stands out as a major step in global philanthropy. Over the past twenty years, the priority has been to give Africans better health care, more education and stronger communities.