In 2024, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation increases its budget for global health initiatives to $8.6 billion, 4% more than last year. The organization made this known in a note.
“We can’t talk about the future of humanity without talking about the future of health,” said Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Gates Foundation. “Every day babies and young children die simply because of where they were born. Mothers die giving birth to them, leaving families devastated. This keeps me up at night. It is unacceptable,” he added, “especially since we have already developed many of the solutions that could save their lives.”
The budget for the current year was formally approved on January 13th. The figure is the highest ever allocated and comes at a time when global contributions to health in low-income countries are stalling or declining, the Foundation says. Sub-Saharan African countries, for example, saw a nearly 8% drop in aid in 2022.
There are countless challenges to face: from infant mortality, with millions of children still dying before the age of 5, to maternal mortality which still records 300 thousand deaths at the time of birth. Or, again, deaths from preventable cancers, such as cervical cancer which kills 340 thousand women every year, 90% in low and middle income countries.
“An investment in global health is an investment in our future. When the world invests resources in proven solutions, it builds stronger, healthier, more resilient communities for generations to come,” said Melinda French Gates, co-president of the Gates Foundation.
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