Cuts to overseas aid budgets are a “tragedy” that is leading to a large numbers of deaths around the world, Bill Gates has warned.
Speaking to Politico, the Microsoft co-founder and chair of the Gates Foundation also expressed a commitment to working with President Donald Trump, who has slashed funding to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), on areas where they can find common ground.
“There were sudden and massive cuts — you just can’t deny that’s led to lots of deaths,” Gates said, adding that “nobody wants to take responsibility for the tragedy that’s going on here.”
The Gates Foundation, which supports The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project, is the world’s largest private foundation – funding global health initiatives, particularly around vaccines and infectious diseases, as well as climate initiatives.
After countries including the US, UK and Germany announced wide-ranging cuts to their aid budgets this year, Gates announced plans to speed up his charitable giving – though he has also warned that philanthropies cannot fill the gap left by foreign governments cutting aid.
Gates suggested that there were still areas where the two can find common ground.
“In my dialogue with President Trump, he clearly cares about these issues and wants to find a generous level for the spending so that the US won’t be responsible for these big increases [in deaths],” Gates said.
The Microsoft founder added that he has had “great conversations” about eradicating polio with the president, who he said would “love” to be the leader in charge if the disease is finally eradicated – despite the presence of high-profile vaccine skeptics like Robert F Kennedy Jr. in his government.
Gates’ comments come days after a Gates Foundation report warned that around 200,000 more children under the age of five are projected to die across the world this year compared with 2024 – the first time this century that has happened – due to he unprecedented aid cuts that have been announced this year.
The report projects that there will be 4.8 million child deaths, compared with 4.6 million the year before. Until now, deaths of under-fives around the world had fallen every year since 2000, when the toll stood at 10 million.
“This year, sadly, is almost certain to be the first year of this century where that has not just stopped, but reversed,” Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman told The Independent.
“By far, the largest single cause of death is the cuts in international aid,” he added. “When you pull back at short notice, that has consequences, and sadly those consequences are measured in human lives.”
This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project
