Cape Town - The lives of poor people around the world will improve more over the next 15 years than during any other time in history. It’s a big bet backed up by an even bigger $42 billion (R479bn) foundation.
“I don’t think it’s utopian. Optimistic, certainly, yes, but we really do believe it’s attainable,” said David Allen, the country representative for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in South Africa.
The Microsoft co-founder and his wife wrote in their annual letter for the charity that the progress they had made so far was “very exciting, so exciting that we are doubling down on the bet we made 15 years ago, and picking ambitious goals for what’s possible 15 years from now”.
So where does South Africa stand? Allen said the country had an important role to play and was one of many that had the potential to meet the “ambitious goals” set by his foundation’s founders.
He said the organisation’s focus was on four main areas, which included health, agriculture, financial services and education.
Allen said South Africa was particularly on track in the health sector to see the improvements that his organisation wanted to see. “The current government in the last five years has made some important improvements, especially in Aids and TB.”
Fighting the diseases is a focal point for the foundation. The organisation has around 150 active foundation grants in South Africa alone totalling up to $250 million in funding for research and projects. Most of this money is being funnelled into the health sector.
In Bill and Melinda Gates’s letter, the pair looked ahead to a world where polio and Guinea worm, along with two other diseases, will be eliminated.
In a recent interview Bill Gates said polio could be the first to go. Africa hasn’t had a case in the past six months. It takes three years of no documents to certify that a disease has been eradicated. The earliest that polio may be declared over is 2018.
Allen said it was incredibly unlikely that TB and Aids would be eradicated in the next 15 years. But he expected significant success in fighting the diseases with the research being conducted in South Africa.
But outside of the health sector, Allen said there were still challenges for one of Africa’s biggest economies. South Africa’s education struggles made headlines this month with news that the matric pass rate had slid.
The foundation places an emphasis on innovation, so it was no surprise that Allen said internet accessibility could play a major role in advancing education for poorer communities over the next 15 years.
“(The internet) will allow for the motivated student to use non-traditional methods to get information that will help them land employment and stable lives.
“The official unemployment rate here is 25 percent. Among young people it is approaching double that. It is important to improve education among young people and link that education to employable jobs. This is I think really a pivotal challenge that really supports the advancement of all other areas,” he added.