"We're here to thank the U.S. taxpayers. Your investment in global health is working."
That's the "official" reason Melinda French Gates and Bill Gates are in Washington, D.C., today.
As spin goes, it's a nice line. But obviously the Gateses didn't go to all the trouble and expense of launching a multimedia experience that debuts tonight at 7 p.m. at Washington's uber-chic Harman Center For The Arts (with simultaneous Webcast) simply to thank lil' ol' taxpayin' me. (Couldn't they have just sent a card?)
The Gateses are visiting our nation's capital to reframe the conversation about global health aid. We should spend more time talking about what works, and how to measure it, they said. All too often, the gotcha-obsessed media focuses instead on what Melinda called "slippage."
We've been traveling in the developing world for over a decade. It's so different than it used to be. We're seeing a lot of hope on the ground. It's palatable. And yet so many reports focus on the negative -- people using malaria nets for fishing, or for a wedding dress. Of course you're going to get some slippage on the end. But what about the story that indoor residual spraying and malaria nets are saving lives...lots and lots of lives?
The Gateses met with about a dozen reporters this morning at the Monaco Hotel for a short roundtable discussion about global health funding. Currently, the U.S. budget is roughly $8 billion. The Obama Administration is looking at possibly increasing this aid, which means knowledge of what works is essential.
"Some things, like education funding, are tough to track because of all the management issues. Vaccinations are a lot easier to track, even in a place like Somalia," Bill told our roundtable group. He would like to see the U.S. budget increased, but has no particular number in mind.
Just think about the $8 billion very differently than you might. It's been wildly successful. It shows that if you make these investments early, it has a transformative effect. Hopefully, this will lead people to want to do more, even at a time when there are tough budget trade-offs.
Italy came up during the discussion because that country recently cut its AIDS budget dramatically without much outcry. "It's a terrible thing to have happen," said Bill. "And when a few governments go backwards, it makes it easier for other governments to do the same thing."
The Gateses argue that the further away you are from funding recipients, the less you may know about whether or not your money was well spent. Since the Gates Foundation team goes back and examines whether their programs worked or not, they are able to share this data.
At this morning's roundtable discussion, Melinda was visibly passionate about finding ways to spread the word about success stories. A few weeks ago, she began posting short videos on the Gates Foundation Web site.
But honestly, our talent isn't storytelling. Hopefully our talent is biotechnology, and creation of delivery systems for vaccinations and other life-saving tools. We hope to draw more filmmakers and storytellers into this work, to make sure the budgets for these programs aren't cut just because people don't have an understanding of the difference they can make.
No developing nation has become self-sufficient without first improving their health care delivery system. Often a little aid goes a long way -- for example, vaccinations save millions of lives each year. But according to Melinda, we've still made very little progress on the preventable deaths of newborns in underdeveloped countries. "Nearly four million infants die in that first 30 days. And a half-million mothers die in childbirth every year. We need more American investment in this area."
The world's poor are fortunate to have Melinda and Bill Gates as advocates. Whether or not you agree with the couple's priority list, the Gateses are serious about measuring and duplicating success. Now if only another billionaire philanthropist would come along and create a multimedia experience showing how health care reform could improve the lives of millions of Americans, and create a healthier climate for small business in the United States.
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Melinda Gates speaking at the reporters' roundtable in Washington, D.C. on 10.27.09
(Photo: Diane Tucker)
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The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Thursday announced it's giving $4 million to help families who have been broadsided by the economic downturn here in Washington state.
The Gates Foundation is better known for its global health work to end poverty and disease in other countries. But Bill Gates, Sr., says this money will help those closest to home. The new funds will help disadvantaged families across the state get basic services, such as food, housing and legal aid.
http://kuow.org/program.php?id=18702
THANK YOU
Next up: "Mother Teresa--Why Didn't That Bitch Ever Help The Kids In My Neighborhood?"
Funny. Maybe this answers the question...
In her Nobel Prize Lecture (1979), Mother Teresa said: "... I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society — that poverty is so hurtable [sic] and so much, and I find that very difficult."
I am all for helping save people through out the world.
who make laws
devastate the already poor
to boost our borderless corporates' bottomline
in which we work or invest to reap dividends from their criminal enterprises, and
we throw some change to the victims of our crimies, and
call it another good day and feel good about ourselves..
I want my money, which are my tax dollars, to go to the poor here in the USA.
The Obama Administration is in the final stages of preparing its FY2011 budget request, which sources say may include a major new global health initiative. (I hear it's in development in the office of Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew. If you have additional information, I hope you will post it here.)
Personally I'd welcome the day when a teenager in Liberia gets a shiny new X-Box for his birthday as opposed to having his parents murdered in the street and dying of AIDS when he's 12.
They are my Father's people, my people.
While other ethnic groups have been allowed to take their arguments to the foreground, no one seems willing to address the lingering damage done to the Native population, even those with casinos on the reservations.
Thanks for sharing.
"A surprising but critical fact we learned was that reducing the number of deaths actually reduces population growth. Contrary to the Malthusian view that population will grow to the limit of however many kids can be fed, in fact parents choose to have enough kids to give them a high chance that several will survive to support them as they grow old. As the number of kids who survive to adulthood goes up, parents can achieve this goal without having as many children.
"This means that improved health is critical to getting a country into the positive cycle of increasing education, stability, and wealth. When health improves, people have smaller families and the government has more resources per person, so improving nutrition and education becomes much easier."
Here's the link:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/annual-letter/Pages/2009-preventing-childhood-deaths.aspx
I would be pleased if you could edit this befor u get back to the market...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G1-KBH-a6U&feature=fvsr
A good will gesture to buy the desserts in California would be a great help. (can't youjust choose one bad cause!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TWCk1WtKPM&feature=PlayList&p=DEBA73A4BCB49AD2&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=61