Bill Gates announced that his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would invest more than $7 billion over the next four years to support African nations working to implement cutting-edge approaches in gender equality, health improvement and farming on the continent.
In addition to already existing financing from the Gates Foundation to multilateral organizations such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, this additional commitment will aid African countries.
“The big global challenges we face are persistent. But we have to remember, so are the people solving them,” Gates said. “Our foundation will continue to support solutions in health, agriculture and other critical areas — and the systems to get them out of the labs and to the people who need them.”
Speaking to more than 500 students at the University of Nairobi, Gates stated Africa’s youth had the potential and chance to advance initiatives and contribute to the solution of some of the most important global issues. This was Gates’ first visit to Africa since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
More than 278 million people in Africa experience chronic hunger, and the Horn of Africa alone is home to more than 37 million people who experience extreme famine and drought.
“The foundation will continue to invest in the researchers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and health care workers who are working to unlock the tremendous human potential that exists across the continent,” said Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the foundation.
The success of several health, agricultural, equality, and anti-poverty efforts had been attributed to relationships with African governments and communities that the foundation has supported from its start.
The foundation has supported organizations over the past two years that are working to fight malaria and other neglected tropical diseases, advance gender equality and women’s financial inclusion, enhance disease surveillance, increase locally led R&D, increase the number of health care workers in Africa, and support smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Image and article originally from www.benzinga.com. Read the original article here.