Bill Gates wants to “save 10 million lives before 2020”

This Tuesday, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and one of the biggest living philanthropists asked the world leaders to make vaccines’ research a priority in order to “ save 10 million lives" before 2020.

He made this announcement during the 64th Health World Assembly, which gathers in Geneva about sixty Ministers and 1.800 delegates representing 193 members of the WHO.

Bill Gates, in his speech, was speaking to donor countries and told them to invest more and more in vaccines and immunizations "even if you have to face budgetary crisis"..

Gates stated that thanks to these new investments " Effective systems of immunization will put an end to polio and will allow all children to enjoy five or six new vaccines".

The President of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made the promise that “We can save four million lives before 2015, and 10 million lives before 2020".

Knowing that a leadership is "essential" to realize his vision, Bill Gates announced that from 2012, his foundation would offer a prize to the person or the organization that would make an innovative and exclusive contribution to the next decade that he named the “decade of vaccines”.

He ended his speech by saying that "The best systems of immunization work when the leaders feel responsible for results".

Calling for world leaders to contribute more and try to make them invest more in research is a very good initiative indeed. But Bill Gates, as being one of the most influential people in the world, probably knows better than no one how things work and move.
He personally benefited from a system that puts profits and assets before anything else. The problem here is not to ask governments to do more efforts especially in a time of important economic recession.

Populations in developed countries are obviously touched by the awful situation in Africa and other parts of the world but are far more concerned by their own problems now.

Instead of calling for governments again and again, Bill Gates and his wealthy contributors should be better try to talk to the big organizations that are actually making profits on this situation.

Big pharmaceutical companies owned by banks prefer to waste vaccines and medicines instead of selling them at a lower price to countries that need them more than anything else.

This is the business they are into and the economical logic they are following is clear and indisputable. Good luck to everyone trying to make them understand that their business model should be changed in order to become philanthropic organizations…

Maybe this is on what governments could act by changing some laws and policies…

But who will pay for the more and more expensive political campaigns afterwards?

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“Poor Economics”, a revolution in the struggle against poverty

Surkld’s team would like to recommend a fantastic book written by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) scientists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo.

The book is called “Poor Economics” and has just been published.

It is a result of the great work the two scientists have been doing lately and presents a new way to look at poverty in poor countries. They provide very interesting facts and data that are coming from their research and surveys in the countries the study is based on.

This book tries to show the logic behind the economic choices made by people living below the poverty line in poor countries. Sometimes the choices they are making might seem a bit strange to us in developed countries to the NGOs working there.

Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo provide new insights and solutions that are based on actual examples they have witnessed during their stay. They have been trying, without any political ideology, to look at the situation in the countries and the solutions given in response by the local governments or NGOs.

By collecting data and focusing on representative groups, the two scientists managed to get to very interesting solutions that will surely be of a great help in the near future. As emeritus scientists, they have of course used the most accurate statistic tools they could in order to achieve an outstanding study that cannot be seen as politically committed.

One of their main conclusions is that people living in these countries are economically rational and behave accordingly. Even if their choices are not the most profitable ones, they are made rationally.

They also say that often, due to their misunderstanding of this logic, NGOs and governments decide for them what is best or not which unfortunately results in lowering the impact of the multiple campaigns they are trying to set up.

We strongly advice you to have a look at the book’s website where you can read more about their amazing work and results:

http://pooreconomics.com/

Surkld would like to compliment Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo and thank them for the great value of their work.

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Agriculture Forum Urges African Countries to Share Knowledge

Agriculture Forum Urges African Countries to Share Knowledge

Knowledge sharing is the best way to help drive increased agricultural productivity in Africa, according to a pan-African agriculture advisory organisation. The African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFASS) outlined the recommendation in its four-year strategic plan that was developed at its most recent summit in Accra, Ghana.

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