LONDON: Saudi Arabia is playing a “growing global leadership role” as the US and European countries drastically cut foreign aid and development funding, the Gates Foundation CEO told Arab News on Thursday.
Speaking as his organization announced a new strategy to give away $200 billion over the next 20 years, Mark Suzman said a planned regional office in Riyadh would help the foundation achieve its long-term goals.
He said the foundation, which is chaired by the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, would continue pursuing the eradication of polio, a campaign that Saudi Arabia has pledged hundreds of million of dollars toward.
The Gates Foundation “deeply appreciated” the leadership shown by the Kingdom “as some of the traditional donors are pulling back,” Suzman said.
The foundation’s new timeline was decided long before the Trump administration radically cut foreign aid spending in January, followed by the UK, France and other European countries.
In light of those cuts, the foundation is “very strongly making the case, whether it’s in Washington, D.C., or London, or Paris, or Berlin, that with the resources that are still focused on development, it is imperative that they get applied to the highest impact opportunities,” Suzman said.
Those opportunities include the Gavi Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — two programs that are estimated to have saved at least 80 million lives in the last 25 years.
Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman said he hopes that polio will be eradicated within three to five years. (AP/File)
Suzman said both programs needed replenishing in the coming months and that he hoped even with the fiscal challenges those governments are facing they would still provide funding.
“At the same time, though, we are really appreciative of the way in which not just Saudi Arabia but other countries in the Gulf have been leaning in and showing a much bigger global leadership role,” he added.
Another key area the foundation will continue to focus on is polio vaccination campaigns. Last year Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which is heavily supported by Gates.
Suzman said he hopes that within three to five years, polio, which is now only endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, will become the second disease after smallpox to be eradicated.
“For us, it’s full steam ahead, and we actually hope that will then free up resources, not just from us, but from growing development partners like the Kingdom or like others in the Gulf, such as the UAE and Qatar.”
He said those resources could then be reallocated to other areas of global health and development, including agricultural and financial inclusion.
Bill Gates said he didn't want people to say he "died rich," as he announced a new timeline to give away his wealth over the next 20 years. (AP/File)
During the announcement of the polio campaign funding in April last year, the foundation also said it would open a new Middle East office in Riyadh at the Mohammed Bin Salman Nonprofit City.
Suzman said the decision to open a Saudi office was due to the polio partnership but also other areas of cooperation with the Kingdom.
The office, which is expected to open early next year, would be part of a growing global network that builds partnerships intended to focus on “long-term health and development goals,” he said.
The foundation also partners with Saudi Arabia on the Lives and Livelihoods Fund, which aims to reduce poverty in Islamic countries.
In November, Gates and the Mohammed Bin Salman Foundation, known as Misk, announced the Challenge for Change program to support nonprofits and social enterprises in the Kingdom.
A Gates Foundation announcement on Thursday said Bill Gates would dramatically speed up the disbursement of almost all of his fortune.
The organization aims to distribute $200 billion by 2045 in what it described as the largest philanthropic commitment in modern history. The foundation would then come to an end.
“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” Gates said as he marked the foundation’s 25th anniversary.
He also warned that decades of progress in reducing death rates from disease and poverty would be reversed due to the cuts in aid funding by governments in the US and Europe.
“It’s going to be millions more deaths because of the resources,” Gates told Reuters.
