LONDON听–听Asking the world to prioritize saving lives in the听飞辞谤濒诲’蝉听poorest countries is increasingly challenging in a world still rocked by the听颁翱痴滨顿–19听pandemic, the threat of climate change, rising energy costs and the war in Ukraine, according to听叠颈濒濒听Gates.
The Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist said it was a “paradox” that in the wake of a huge听驳濒辞产补濒听丑别补濒迟丑听threat, funding for tackling diseases like malaria and AIDS could actually drop this year.
“I am very worried鈥 ironically, in the face of the clearest indication of why infectious disease is not a thing of the past, in fact, the funding levels could go down,” said听骋补迟别蝉听in an interview with Reuters last week.
He was speaking ahead of the publication of the听叠颈濒濒听and Melinda听骋补迟别蝉听Foundation’s annual Goalkeepers report, which tracks progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), around reducing poverty and improving听丑别补濒迟丑.
The report finds that the pandemic has knocked the world off-course on almost every indicator, and progress would need to speed up by a factor of five in order to reach the targets set for 2030 on issues like reducing maternal mortality or ending malnutrition.
“It’s hard to overstate what a setback the pandemic has been and it’s hard to overstate what a setback the war in Ukraine is,” said听骋补迟别蝉, who pointed out that pre-2019,听驳濒辞产补濒听丑别补濒迟丑听was improving in most areas.
“It is fair to say that saving lives in Africa and caring about the poorest countries, we’ll be challenged to听尘补颈苍迟补颈苍听that as a priority and not cut back on those things,” he added.
骋补迟别蝉听has channeled more of his own money into the foundation this year and it will up its annual budget from $6听产颈濒濒ion to $9听产颈濒濒ion by 2026, but he said he was concerned about the competing pressures on the budgets of donor governments.
However,听骋补迟别蝉听said there was still hope, particularly in areas like food security, if the world invests in innovation. – Reuters
