Gates Foundation releases ‘Goalkeepers’ report

Agence France-Presse: Progress in fight on poverty, but more work needed: Bill Gates
“Great progress has been made since 1990 in alleviating global poverty, but much remains to be done, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said in a report out Wednesday…” (9/13).

Business Insider: Bill Gates reveals the biggest public health threats over the next 10 years
“Bill and Melinda Gates have released their first-annual ‘Goalkeepers’ report, a celebration of key milestones in public health and a look at which issues are still most pressing. The wins include sizable declines in childhood mortality and HIV infection rates, while the ongoing struggles include family planning and equality for women…” (Weller, 9/13).

Deutsche Welle: Gates Foundation: World has made ‘huge progress’ in reducing child mortality
“Goalkeepers: The Stories Behind the Data looks at how well the world is meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will publish the report annually until 2030, the year set by the international community to meet these targets…” (Nyambura, 9/13).

Devex: Bill Gates says progress on the SDGs is possible but not inevitable
“…Goalkeepers: The Stories Behind the Data was produced in partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which received $279 million from the Gates Foundation earlier this year, building on the $105 million grant that stood up the effort a decade ago…” (Cheney, 9/13).

GeekWire: Bill & Melinda Gates launch annual ‘Goalkeepers’ report to track progress toward key U.N. goals for 2030
“…[T]he report is also meant to be a word of warning to governments considering cutting programs that provide aid to the developing world. Several of the charts include predictions for how these health metrics will change by 2030, with green indicating the best case scenario and red the worst…” (Nickelsburg, 9/12).

The Guardian: Bill Gates: Don’t expect charities to pick up the bill for Trump’s sweeping aid cuts
“Bill Gates has warned that organizations like his are ‘absolutely not’ prepared to plug the yawning gaps in development aid that will result from funding cuts, including those proposed by President Trump. Speaking to the Guardian ahead of the U.N. General Assembly meeting, which opens for general debate next week, the billionaire philanthropist said simply: ‘There’s no way to balance a cut in [a] rich country’s generosity’…” (Hodal, 9/13).

Quartz: Bill and Melinda Gates: We’re on a course to miss 2030 development goals for health and poverty
“…A 10 percent annual drop in donor funding for HIV treatment — roughly similar to the level of the cut proposed by the White House — could result in the deaths of an additional 5.6 million people by 2030, according to analysis by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington that’s included in the Gates report…” (Delaney, 9/13).

Reuters: Progress on global poverty and disease at risk, Gates says
“…But opposition Democrats and many of Trump’s fellow Republicans have blasted his plan, saying they will reject it. Congress, not the administration, controls U.S. spending. Gates said his foundation is working hard to secure continued U.S. government funding for global health and development and remained hopeful the proposed cuts will not be approved” (Kelland, 9/13).

Seattle Times: Bill Gates: Global health cuts would increase AIDS deaths
“… ‘Up until now there has been tremendous support for global health by the U.S. government, and it’s been bipartisan,’ said Jen Kates, director of global health and HIV policy for the Kaiser Family Foundation, which specializes in health policy analysis. ‘I think this election threw much of that up in the air.’ Trump’s proposed ‘America First’ budget would cut civilian foreign aid by about a third. … Gates said it appears Congress will reject those cuts and maintain funding at current levels in most areas. But he cautioned that the final outcome ‘still hangs in the balance’…” (Doughton, 9/13).

Washington Post: Melinda Gates decries ‘loss of U.S. leadership’ in global aid
“Melinda Gates is calling on world leaders to step up global aid funding, saying ‘a loss of U.S. leadership’ is resulting in ‘confusion and chaos’ in some of the most vulnerable corners of the planet. The billionaire philanthropist and her husband, Bill, who spoke in separate interviews at the offices of their charitable foundation last week, have deep concerns about the global repercussions of the federal budget debate in Washington…” (Cha, 9/13).

WIRED U.K.: Stop funding major health issues at your peril, warns Bill Gates
“…Outside of the U.S., Gates says that it’s encouraging that even with the change of Prime Minister, the U.K. has re-committed to the 0.7 percent U.N. aid spending target. Countries like Sweden, Norway, the UAE go above this, while France is looking to increase on their 0.55 by 2020. ‘I’d feel very good about the U.K. on a bipartisan basis has been very generous,’ Gates says…” (Christian, 9/13).

Additional coverage is available from Business Day, Business Insider, The Independent, Livemint, NPR, Forbes, The Atlantic, and Xinhua News.

Source: Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report