The Gates Foundation will not change course in the face of massive foreign aid cuts, holding out hope that the U.S.specifically will return to funding the global health projects the foundation has long championed, its CEO said Tuesday.Instead, the foundation — one of the largest in the world — will concentrate at least 70% of its funding over the next 20 years on ending preventable maternal and child deaths and controlling key infectious diseases.
A third goal focused on poverty will divide its work between U.S.education and agriculture in poorer countries.
“We are saying not only will we not be taking on new priorities, we’re actively narrowing our priorities against three core North Star goals,” Mark Suzman said in an interview with The Associated Press as the foundation published an annual update on its plans Tuesday.In May, Bill Gates, who started the foundation with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates in 2000, announced it would close in 20 years, earlier than planned.In the letter Tuesday, Suzman gave more details about what work would end and what would continue.
He also affirmed that the foundation would not rethink its plans given the cuts to foreign assistance by donor countries around the world.“While these conditions will have significant repercussions for global health and development for the next few years, priorities can shift.
Debt can be restructured.Generosity can return,” Suzman wrote in the letter, referring also to the significant debt burden that many low- and middle-income countries carry, which eats into their public health budgets, for example.
The foundation will renew its campaign for donor countries to fund global health, specifically, Suzman said, even as he acknowledged that overall funding levels were unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels.“We definitely have not lost hope that the U.S.
will stay engaged over the medium and longer term as a champion of global health,” Suzman said.The foundation will renew its a...