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Bill and Melinda Gates: 'Our big bet for the future'

3 February 2015

In their 2015 annual letter, Bill and Melinda Gates announced the breakthroughs they see coming over the next 15 years that will improve the lives of people in poor countries. The big bets include a further decline in child deaths.

 

Fifteen years ago, Bill and Melinda Gates started the Foundation (which funds the ACT Consortium) with the idea that by backing innovative work in health and education, they could help dramatically reduce inequity.

"The progress we've see so far is 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," they wrote on the Gates Notes website.

Under the big bet that "the lives of people in poor countries will improve faster in the next 15 years than at any other time in history," Bill and Melinda Gates predict four major breakthroughs:

  1. Child deaths will go down, and more diseases will be wiped out
  2. Africa will be able to feed itself
  3. Mobile banking will help the poor transform their lives
  4. Better software will revolutionise learning

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