Washington: Bill GatesWorried about “significant suffering” from global setbacks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Wednesday it will donate $20 billion to its foundation so it can increase its annual spending.
Dan, longtime board member jointly with Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren BuffettLast month’s $3.1 billion gift, The . brings bill And Melinda Gates Foundationhas an endowment of approximately $70 billion, making it the largest, if not the largest, in the world based on daily stock valuations. In an essay on the foundation’s website, Bill Gates said he expected “others in positions of great wealth and privilege to step up in this moment.”
The Gates Foundation plans to increase its annual budget by 50% to pre-pandemic levels to about $9 billion by 2026. The Foundation hopes the increased spending will improve education, reduce poverty, and restore global progress toward ending preventable disease and achieving gender equality. has been stopped in recent years.
According to the United Nations Development Program, 71 million people have been pushed into poverty since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, mainly due to rising food and energy prices. Families from the Balkans, the Caspian Sea region and sub-Saharan Africa have been particularly affected. The United Nations World Food Program reports that the number of acutely hungry people now stands at 345 million, a 25% increase since the start of the war in Ukraine.
“Despite the massive global setbacks over the years, I see incredible heroism and sacrifice all over the world and I believe progress is possible,” Bill Gates, co-chair of the foundation, said in a statement. “But the great crises of our time require all of us to do more… I hope that by giving more, we can alleviate some of the suffering we are facing right now and help everyone stay healthy. Let us help fulfill the vision of the foundation to give a chance of a more productive life.”
Co-chair Melinda French Gates said the additional spending would help provide a more “fair and inclusive recovery”.
“Charity has a unique role to play in helping people around the world recover from the pandemic and rebuild the underlying systems that were so vulnerable initially,” French Gates said in a statement.
Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, said Monday in the “Hunger Pains: The Growing Global Food Crisis” webinar that the current global crisis triggered by the Russian invasion has stalled two decades of progress. However, the increase in agricultural productivity around the world remains mostly in place.
“We have the tools. We have the science. We have the knowledge,” Suzman said. “What we need is political will and resources.”
Those resources include donations from philanthropic organizations. Suzman said the Gates Foundation invests heavily in linking agricultural advances with the right countries, introducing drought-resistant corn seeds or flood-resistant rice to areas that can make the most of them.
However, philanthropy has its limits, he said. Suzman said the response of the world’s wealthiest countries has not only fallen short of what is currently needed, but has also fallen short of what the world had provided during a similar crisis a decade ago. “This is our most important area of opportunity for human solidarity,” he said. “It actually has implications for providing better political stability and macroeconomic growth, which I think everyone wants to see.”
In his essay, Bill Gates wrote that polarization in the United States makes it difficult to deal with global crises. “The political divide limits our political capacity for dialogue, compromise and cooperation and thwarts the bold leadership needed, domestically and internationally, to address these threats,” he wrote. “Polarization is forcing us to look back and fight again for basic human rights, social justice and democratic norms.”
While achieving gender equality has long been one of the Foundation’s primary investment areas, Bill Gates, in his essay on the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade as “a major blow to gender equality, women’s health and overall human progress”. ,
“The prospect of even more regression is scary,” he said. “It would put lives at risk for women, people of color and anyone who lives on the margins.”
Dan, longtime board member jointly with Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren BuffettLast month’s $3.1 billion gift, The . brings bill And Melinda Gates Foundationhas an endowment of approximately $70 billion, making it the largest, if not the largest, in the world based on daily stock valuations. In an essay on the foundation’s website, Bill Gates said he expected “others in positions of great wealth and privilege to step up in this moment.”
The Gates Foundation plans to increase its annual budget by 50% to pre-pandemic levels to about $9 billion by 2026. The Foundation hopes the increased spending will improve education, reduce poverty, and restore global progress toward ending preventable disease and achieving gender equality. has been stopped in recent years.
According to the United Nations Development Program, 71 million people have been pushed into poverty since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, mainly due to rising food and energy prices. Families from the Balkans, the Caspian Sea region and sub-Saharan Africa have been particularly affected. The United Nations World Food Program reports that the number of acutely hungry people now stands at 345 million, a 25% increase since the start of the war in Ukraine.
“Despite the massive global setbacks over the years, I see incredible heroism and sacrifice all over the world and I believe progress is possible,” Bill Gates, co-chair of the foundation, said in a statement. “But the great crises of our time require all of us to do more… I hope that by giving more, we can alleviate some of the suffering we are facing right now and help everyone stay healthy. Let us help fulfill the vision of the foundation to give a chance of a more productive life.”
Co-chair Melinda French Gates said the additional spending would help provide a more “fair and inclusive recovery”.
“Charity has a unique role to play in helping people around the world recover from the pandemic and rebuild the underlying systems that were so vulnerable initially,” French Gates said in a statement.
Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, said Monday in the “Hunger Pains: The Growing Global Food Crisis” webinar that the current global crisis triggered by the Russian invasion has stalled two decades of progress. However, the increase in agricultural productivity around the world remains mostly in place.
“We have the tools. We have the science. We have the knowledge,” Suzman said. “What we need is political will and resources.”
Those resources include donations from philanthropic organizations. Suzman said the Gates Foundation invests heavily in linking agricultural advances with the right countries, introducing drought-resistant corn seeds or flood-resistant rice to areas that can make the most of them.
However, philanthropy has its limits, he said. Suzman said the response of the world’s wealthiest countries has not only fallen short of what is currently needed, but has also fallen short of what the world had provided during a similar crisis a decade ago. “This is our most important area of opportunity for human solidarity,” he said. “It actually has implications for providing better political stability and macroeconomic growth, which I think everyone wants to see.”
In his essay, Bill Gates wrote that polarization in the United States makes it difficult to deal with global crises. “The political divide limits our political capacity for dialogue, compromise and cooperation and thwarts the bold leadership needed, domestically and internationally, to address these threats,” he wrote. “Polarization is forcing us to look back and fight again for basic human rights, social justice and democratic norms.”
While achieving gender equality has long been one of the Foundation’s primary investment areas, Bill Gates, in his essay on the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade as “a major blow to gender equality, women’s health and overall human progress”. ,
“The prospect of even more regression is scary,” he said. “It would put lives at risk for women, people of color and anyone who lives on the margins.”