Tag Archives: The Gates Foundation

Jan24

The 2014 Gates Annual Letter & Myth Busting

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The 2014 Gates Annual Letter & Myth Busting

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I wanted to stand up and shout “Bravo” after reading the 2014 Gates Annual Letter this week. It is so well done.  Of course we’ve come to expect no less from Bill & Melinda Gates these days as they seem to be driving the search for solutions to the world’s toughest problems. In fact earlier this month Bill Gates was declared the Most Admired Person in the world in a global survey done by YouGov for the Times of London. What I love about the letter this year is the clear-cut way three false beliefs that hinder development are tackled. An optimist myself, the hopeful predictions in this letter make me want to stand up and cheer.

 “By 2035, there will be almost no poor countries left in the world”.- Bill Gates

The Myth Busters Live show came through town recently, and my family and I really enjoyed it. Having been fans of the TV show, we gleefully watched popular myths disproved on stage as science trumped assumptions time after time.  So it is a thrill for me that Bill & Melinda Gates have taken the Myth Busters approach to dispel three pervasive myths surrounding our ability to put an end to global poverty. The 2014 Gates Annual Letter, published this past week,  like the Myth Busters, uses facts, data, and science to indisputably shut down major misconceptions regarding our ability to end extreme poverty over the next several decades. The well executed letter is packed with great videos, charts and infographics to back up points.

The first myth tackled is that Poor Countries Are Doomed To Stay Poor.  Just by showing the before and after pictures of the evolution of underdeveloped cities that have transformed over the decades into modern metropolises proves  this statement is false. The progress is indisputable, and if it can happen in some of the cities shown in the letter, then it can happen anywhere.  War, corruption, politics, and geography will always be the biggest enemies of progress.  As the letter states however;  there are many elements that contribute to extreme poverty that we now have the solutions for.

 So the easiest way to respond to the myth that poor countries are doomed to stay poor is to point to one fact: They haven’t stayed poor. Many—though by no means all—of the countries we used to call poor now have thriving economies. And the percentage of very poor people has dropped by more than half since 1990.-Bill Gates

The second myth is that Foreign Aid is a Big Waste. This frustrates me, when the general population is under the misconception that 25% of our budget is spent on foreign aid, and the reality is less than 1% ! Foreign Aid has greatly helped progress in many ways and although it is not perfect, major global breakthroughs have resulted from it.  Just take a look at the infographic below to get an idea of some ways it has contributed to over the years:

What_Aid_Buys_CG.AL-Infographic_MASTER-06_1-21UPDATE

 The third myth is that Saving Lives Leads To Overpopulation. According to the World Health Organization Globally, around 54.5 million people die each year. One in eight of these deaths occurs in children under the age of 5, and most of those are from preventable causes. Not only is it the humane thing to prevent the deaths that we can, but when more children survive, family sizes shrink. The below video does an amazing job of explaining why:

I really encourage you to read the 2014 Gates Annual Letter in its entirety yourself. It is a worthy read. Bravo to Bill and Melinda Gates.

By almost any measure, the world is better than it has ever been. People are living longer, healthier lives. Many nations that were aid recipients are now self-sufficient. You might think that such striking progress would be widely celebrated, but in fact, Melinda and I are struck by how many people think the world is getting worse. The belief that the world can’t solve extreme poverty and disease isn’t just mistaken. It is harmful. That’s why in this year’s letter we take apart some of the myths that slow down the work. The next time you hear these myths, we hope you will do the same.
– Bill Gates

global team I wrote this post as part of The Global Team of 200, a highly specialized group of members of Mom Bloggers for Social Good that concentrates on issues involving women and girls, children, world hunger and maternal health.

Our Motto: Individually we are all-powerful. Together we can change the world. We believe in the power of collective action to help others and believe in ourselves to make this world a better place for our children and the world’s children.

*All photos, info graphics videos and quotes in this post are sourced  from the 2014 Gates Annual Letter.

Apr10

The Upcoming Global Newborn Health Conference #Newborn2013

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The Upcoming Global Newborn Health Conference #Newborn2013

It had been a while since I had cradled a newborn in my arms, and as I held a friend’s new baby the other day I felt the world fall away. I just sat in awe staring at his sweet face and marveling at the tiny hand wrapped around my finger. I remembered holding each of my newborn babies and getting lost in their innocence. There is nothing so precious or miraculous in my mind than a new baby. It reminded me of how different life is in those early days, as a mother, your focus is just so intent on sustaining the new life that you somehow wondrously brought into this world. I was able to be so child-centric at that time in our lives, virtually unaware of the outside universe.  Now with older children venturing out each day, it is impossible not to look outward from our home, at the world my kids are growing up in.

It is a world where not all mothers get to see their newborn thrive and grow. There is another moment I clearly remember from each of my birthing experiences, and that is the moment right before the baby came, an acute clear panic that something might go wrong, an awareness that one, or two of our lives were at stake. Then, luckily, thankfully, the relief when we both made it through, our baby took its first breath, and was placed in my arms.  It is that neonatal period of the first 28 days of life when a baby is most vulnerable.   Because of this fact there are many cultures in the world where  babies are not even given a name  , in some cases they can remain nameless for up to two months after they are born.  It does not need to be that way, and in this day and age should not be.  Many mothers could be spared the loss of their newborn with simple precautions and shared knowledge that should be commonly available.  We have the resources to ensure that newborn babies do not die unnecessarily, and we need to strive to get awareness and access to all women giving birth.

My Newborns, Four Of The Important Reasons Why I Care About Newborn Health

Saving Newborn Lives is the goal of The Gates Foundation’s Director of Family Health, Dr. Gary Darmstadt, and for 28 days until April 15th, a period that represents the critical neonatal period in a newborn life, he is inspiring an ongoing conversation regarding newborn health to help generate action to prevent the unnecessary loss of newborn lives. The Global Team of 200 has joined up with him for the 28 days leading up to the Global Newborn Health Conference that will be held between April 15 – 18 in South Africa, to engage in conversations and spread the word about global newborn health through social media.

As countries make their final push toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals and beyond, progress in reducing neonatal mortality is essential to meeting the child survival MDG. While progress has been made in addressing childhood illnesses, newborn deaths now account for 43 percent of deaths of children under age 5. Globally, nearly 3 million newborns die each year and 2.6 million babies are stillborn. Four out of five newborn deaths result from three preventable and treatable conditions: prematurity, intrapartum-related complications (“birth asphyxia”) and infections. USAID’s flagship Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP), Save the Children’s Saving Newborn Lives (SNL) program, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), with additional support from John Snow, Inc., the Laerdal Foundation, and Jhpiego, will host a four-day conference focused on accelerating the scale-up of high-impact interventions that address these three major causes of newborn mortality. – Global Newborn Health Conference

Dr. Gary Darmstadt is tweeting “Did You Know” facts about newborn health leading up to the conference, and you can join us in the conversation too at #newborn2013.

 

 

 

 

I wrote this post as part of The Global Team of 200, a highly specialized group of members of Mom Bloggers for Social Good that concentrates on issues involving women and girls, children, world hunger and maternal health.

Our Motto: Individually we are all powerful. Together we can change the world. We believe in the power of collective action to help others and believe in ourselves to make this world a better place for our children and the world’s children.

Want to share the #Newborn2013 conversation on Facebook? It’s easy. Click the link below to easily share.

Join the Conversation About Newborn Health