International
My 2012 Annual Letter
In this guest post, Bill Gates discusses the themes of his annual letter, which looks back on progress made and lessons learned in the fight against extreme poverty. Originally published on Impatient Optimists, blog of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
My job is to learn about global health and development—and to travel to poor countries to meet farmers who can’t grow enough food, mothers who can’t keep children healthy, and heroes in the field who are doing something about those emergencies. Very few people can devote the time to really understand these complex problems. Even fewer can actually meet the people who are struggling to overcome them. That is why I write an annual letter every year.
I want people to know about the amazing progress we’ve made. I also want them to see how much more progress it will take before we live in a truly equitable world.
In this year’s letter, I focus on food and agriculture (though I also provide updates about all the global health and U.S. education work we do). When I was in high school, a popular book called The Population Bomb painted a nightmarish vision of mass starvation on a planet that has outgrown its carrying capacity. That prediction was wrong, in large part because researchers developed much more productive seeds and other tools that helped poor farmers in many parts of the world multiply their yields. As a result, the percentage of people in extreme poverty has been cut in half in my lifetime. That’s the amazing progress part of the story, and not enough people know it.
But there’s the progress-yet-to-come part, and people need to know that, too. There are still more than 1 billion people who live in extreme poverty. They are located primarily in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and they live on the edge of starvation. There is an irony in this, because most of them are farmers. We can help these 1 billion achieve self-sufficiency, just like we helped billions before them, but we stopped trying. At a certain point, the sense of crisis around food dissipated, and the proportion of foreign aid dedicated to agriculture dropped from one-fifth to less than one-twentieth.
My hope for my annual letter is that it helps people connect to the choice we all have to make. Relatively small investments changed the future for hundreds of millions of small farm families. The choice now is this: Do we continue those investments so that the 1 billion people who remain poor benefit? Or do we tolerate a world in which one in seven people is undernourished, stunted, and in danger of starving to death?
In times of tight budgets, we have to pick our priorities. It’s clear that in this particular time, we’re in danger of deciding that aid to the poorest is not one of them. I am confident, however, that if people understand what their aid has already accomplished—and its potential to accomplish so much more—they’ll insist on doing more, not less. That is why I wrote my letter. I hope you’ll take the time to read it and share it with your friends and family.
I’ve invited students from around the world to write their own annual letters too. You can send your letter, or any questions you have for me, to annualletter@gatesfoundation.org. I’ll be answering and talking about the ideas in your letters in a live webcast on February 2 on my Facebook page.
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About the Blog
The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
25/01/2012 at 3:30 am
Hi, Bill—
I recently published an article to share my theory about famine from the perspective of an RN, discussing how easily people allow themselves to put the thought of scores of starving people out of their mind. The truth of what occurs to these families in crisis is horrifying and painful enough that it is treated by the observer’s brain as a traumatic event, to be stifled as much as possible. I also find that as a society we allow prejudice against these people to continue by referring to them as the “third world”, automatically separating them from us. I am working actively in any way I can to bring others to our cause. I feel a big part of this will be to show people that although the suffering is real, so much good has already happened, and will still happen.
Here is the link to my article:
http://voices.yahoo.com/third-world-people-hidden-prejudice-10549685.html?cat=5
It is a quick read. If you like it and want to use any part of it when you are doing your webcast in February, you are welcome to do so as I own the copyright. I am looking forward to hearing you on Feb. 2nd.
Thank you,
Laura Pedersen
25/01/2012 at 2:36 pm
What technology are you talking about and what investment. It almost sounds like a sales pitch. There is enough food in the world and the west is throwing it away. One reason is to keep the prices high. So why do we not share this food.
My suspicion and a gut feeling is that you have a believe in science. Some people believe so much in science that they treat as a religion. One aspect of religion is that “theirs” ideology is the only answer to any problems and any other ideas do not have a place in that scheme.
When you promote the idea to genetically modify a banana and “force” it to grow with other nutrition that it has already within it then I feel shocked. Is this about promoting GM crops. Is it true that you have invested in Monsanto.
If you have then my case is closed. If you are promoting technology that you have invested in, then you have personal interest in it. That kind of promoter does not hold any trust as I am concerned and specially if you are promoting non tested and dangerous GM crops in the name of hunger and poverty.
Monsanto is already a disaster and will be even more so in the future. GM crops are not to be spread around the globe in the name of hunger.
If you want to listen to someone who really knows what he is talking about. Who has non self interest. Who speaks for the people and not the system, then listen to Raj Patel.
29/01/2012 at 5:22 am
Dear Mr. Gates, I am a volunteer with The Friends of Barnabas, Inc., a 501-C-3 organization, that provides care for infants, children, and now families in the central Honduran mountain villages. Just as our public seems to resist traumatic images of poverty by denying the benefits of food and farm improvements, the public resists traumatic images of illness among the poorest of the poor. Friends of Barnabas serves communities that are extremely remote and receive no to little care or facilities to their villages. Doctors and nurses volunteer their time and skills to provide open-heart, cleft palate surgeries, eye care, and preventative and clinical care. Friends of Barnabas serves villages with volunteer teams who travel with their coordinators each month, measuring out medicines, handing out flip flops (to prevent parasites), to rock babies, and play with children who have surgery. Volunteers teach villages how to care for themselves in order to prevent oral, visual, and bodily illnesses. Volunteers educate pregnant women about how to remain healthy and to have healthy deliveries (and provide prenatal vitamins and birthing kits). Currently, we have a doctor providing training to a Honduran medical resident. By 2014 this doctor will be the first doctor so trained, able to provide for Honduran villages. Our greatest hope is that we can continue such education until our services are no longer needed in the central Honduras region! This year we hope to change our status to public-private, so that private businesses and institutions who see the validity of our techniques can invest as well. (Of course, any individual can donate or join us in our mission teams now!) The Friends of Barnabas, inc. has saved lives. Friends of Barnabas has provided opportunities for individuals to know more about becoming healthy and remaining healthy. Friends of Barnabas has provided training so villages can care for themselves, becoming independent in their own medical self care. I believe that what we do needs to be known, needs to be shared in the world, needs to be celebrated, and needs to be continued by as many people as possible until every village around the world is healthy. I agree with you, Mr. Gates, the more we know about our successes, the more we will want to invest in these successes. I pray you will share the successes we have seen with Friends of Barnabas, and that you will want to help Friends of Barnabas continue to serve.
02/02/2012 at 12:19 pm
hi there!
Am one of the billion people living in the ’3rd’ world, and until recent times i used to be optimist in changing the world but now a day when i really hold the tail of the monster called POLITICS my belive and optimist view walked right away through every tiney hole in my mind & began to complain ‘for what?’…
What am i missing here?