Investing For Humanity In Conversation

Thank you so much for joining me here on stage for this crucial discussion, investing in humanity, unlocking private capital for global pro progress. In this panel, we'll be discussing the challenges as well as the optimism and solutions in the sector and how we can learn from inspirational examples of successful impactful partnerships and what finance models, technologies and innovations are needed to accelerate change. So, Bill, if you don't mind, I'm going to start with you. So of course the world has seen incredible progress in tackling huge problems like child mortality which has been cut in half in the last 25 years. But if we know what works, what is holding us back from saving even more lives, especially from preventable diseases?

Well, the outcomes in global health are a combination of the uh generosity of resources going to help particularly the u po forest countries uh to run highquality primary health care systems. Uh it's a factor of how much innovation we have creating new uh lowcost tools and it's a a factor of how well we execute uh the quality of those delivery systems understanding what's working not and learning from uh the heroes in the field learning from the very best practices and as you said uh the 25 years up till now

uh we had everything working in our favor uh more generosity uh you know Bobby uh buying vaccines for all the world's children uh global fund working on areas like malaria, HIV and TB. Uh and we we came a long ways. Um we have a little bit of headwinds now and that that generosity this is the first year it'll go down and you know there's a direct connection between how much we spend uh buying those tools helping those primary health care systems and the lives we save. So we have a a bit of a reversal um back up from 4.6 million to 4.

8 million almost entirely in Africa. Uh Asia continues to make good progress. And the name of the game here is that if a country is healthy then it can educate its kids uh and have economic growth and become self-sufficient. So many recipients like India and Indonesia, Vietnam, you know, took uh Gabby money and other primary healthcare work and now uh are completely self-sufficient. And although we have a long ways to go to get every country to that point, uh our aspiration over the next 20 years, uh is that we get every country uh to have healthy kids, kids who thrive, and that they're completely self-sufficient.

We're talking about a long way to go. Your Excellency Dr. Barcad, if I can bring you in here. While we're seeing many traditional donors retreat from global development, others like the UAE are stepping up. The UAE's leadership in global development, particularly in priority areas like global health and disease eradication, is rooted in a collaborative approach that brings new partners to the table.

What makes this model so distinctive do you think? What unique strength does the UAE bring to these partnerships?

Thank you. So for the United Arab Emirates, global health is part of its uh foreign policy and economic prosperity agenda. And we do this through collaborative approaches but specifically long-term and innovative collaborations and not not through short-term projects. So I think this is a a key factor and we also you know everything we do is underpinned by the vision of our leadership. His highness the president believes that no child should die or be debilitated by a preventable disease.

Um and and if you look at you know what the country has been doing for many years. So for instance in terms of official development assistance we have uh most of the last 10 years we've been either the top or near the top of uh uh of the ODA as as a percentage of the gross national income. Um polio is is an example. We we we don't give we don't give loans to countries especially the ones that are heavily uh in debt. You know the UAE mostly gives grants which which I think is really helpful to to some of the poorest countries.

Um polio his highness the president has personally given $380 million for in the fight against polio. Guineaorm. We we have over a four decade history with the Carter Center collaborating with them to try and eliminate guineaorm. Um and that that started with the late founding father of this country uh his highest Zed. May may God rest his soul.

Um uh we have projects around the world. We have built over a 100 hospitals in some of the the poorest countries. Um but I I think the question is uh can one entity do and cover all these complex challenges be they polio or uh survival of mothers and children or neglected tropical diseases or malaria and the answer is no. Um and and I think the two distinguishing factors of of the model of the UAE there are firstly it's it's collaborative uh uh encouragement. Um you know we have we have an audience today where we have decision makers from governments, funders from governments, we have uh philanthropists and we have the private sector and when you have this collaborative approach you get a multiplier effect.

Um and in particular you get better ideas, you get better momentum, you get uh better networking and better outcomes and especially with the private sector I think you know they they bring in an enhancement to the speed of delivery and they bring in uh scalability and and they bring in innovations you know they can they can pull in innovations uh much more quickly. So, so I think that's one element which is the collaborative approach. The other element is the unique convening power. Um, we know through previous fora such as this one, for instance, uh the reaching the last mile forum in in 2019, um the the audience was able to commit to billions of dollars uh against polio. uh 190 million dollars of which came from his highness the president.

Um and in COP 28 similarly uh the forum was able to to to get commitments for $777 million for neglected tropical diseases. So I I think these are the two elements that that really uh kind of give make our approach from the United Arab Emirates different. Thank you.

And sounding that collaboration is key. Dr. Daba Ethiopia has made remarkable progress in expanding access to essential health care over the past decade from maternal and child health to immunization. From your perspective, how do you think sustained investment in health has helped drive that progress? And what role do innovative country-led partnerships played?

And what lessons do you think have you learned about building resilient and effective partnerships? Thank you. Over the past 25 years, if you look at Ethiopia in a topic that we talk about polio, it was during this 25 years that we eradicated the polio. We we have done a lot over the past 25 years. Matana mortality reduced, child mortality reduced even more than by half and infant mortality also reduced within this 25 years.

Collaboration has helped us bringing women closer to the community, community closer to the facility and providers closer to the community. This was possible due to collaboration, efficiency and uh a trust in each other. government, philanthropal organizations, international organizations, global and regional collaborations coming together within the past 25 years, Ethiopia was even able to reduce I mean if you look at uh all the burdens that we were looking from eradicated eradicable type of diseases to increasing life expectancy we pushed life expectancy by more than 20 years within the past 25 years a A lot has been achieved over the past 25 years but there is a lot to be done now. The globe is changing the environment is not the same but if we come together just like we did before but in a in an urgent manner now than before we can really accelerate and we can we can achieve better than what we have done over the years. And I believe if we align with government priorities, government set point which is aligned with community because it is all about what the community will ask and then we bring philanthropists to help in catalyzing some funding so that we can increase the fiscal space so that finance can also flow to the country.

There is a lot that we can achieve and there are examples even with from from our country from compact we have done uh from family planning compact from MDG pool fund SDG pool fund which continued there is a lot that all countries can learn from each other and uh a solution is there we know what innovation can bring and it's possible bill how do you feel when you hear these practical examples

well at the turn of the century country. Um, you know, I was stunned to learn how little money went in to saving children's lives. You know, we had vaccines like a diarrheal vaccine that was being given in the rich countries uh where the kids had very little risk of dying but not being given uh to the kids who needed it most. And so the fact that over this 25 years uh the ability to really measure how many kids are dying, what are they dying of, uh you know, exactly what new tools do we need, let's invest in those, let's bring the price down. Um it's been phenomenal.

You know, Ethiopia is a great example where they prioritize the primary health care system. Uh they're coming up with an overall health plan. they coordinate the donors to give to that plan. And so even though the world has seen this 50% reduction, Ethiopia has seen even greater uh than 50% reduction. Uh and you know, so it's a real joy uh the partnerships that have come together.

Uh we do need to remind people about this because it's far away. you know, we have a child born in Nigeria is 30 times more likely to die than a child born here or in the United States.

And it's been interesting talking with our uh phenomenal partners here in the UAE about, you know, their connection to this cause. They think back just a few generations and they think, okay, the situations we lived in weren't that far away, certainly three generations ago, than uh what many countries are still dealing in with. And then so it's amazing how uh you feel that connection. Of course, you know, I always encourage people to go visit and see these things because everybody, you know, deserve to see that, you know, a single child's death is a tragedy. And here we're talking about uh, you know, saving millions of lives, preventing millions of kids from being paralyzed uh from diseases like polio.

It's interesting though, isn't it? Because there are so many global causes worth investing in. Why do all of you feel investing in advancing global health and disease eradication is the priority and why now and where do you see the greatest opportunities for this impact? Um, so for for for us a healthy population is a prosperous population. I think that goes without saying.

And global health is not charity. Uh, it's an investment in human capital, in econ economic stability and in security. So it's it's really important. Polio is a great example. I know we're running out of time, but polio is is a wonderful example for what can be done.

Since 1988, the numbers have really plummeted to below 99% of what they used to be. However, we cannot stop. And yes, the latest figures from last week, we have 39 figures worldwide only in two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And if we stop now, not only will will we not finish this, but the numbers will mushroom and and spread not just in two countries, but in most countries in the world. And we'll go back to having hundreds of thousands of unnecessarily paralyzed or or or even worse for paralysis for than for our children.

Well, what her excellency has said, Bill, if I can ask you now, polio, of course, was once a global threat. Today, we're in the last stretch of eradicating the second disease in history, saving lives. How close are we, do you think, to completely eradicating it? And what would it mean for future generations?

We can eradicate polio but it takes everyone to come together. If uh you look at the current challenge that we are facing at a country level, it's a crossborder related issue. We have to coordinate. If we really want to, it's it's usually the last mile which is very difficult. So we are now at that last mile where we need to close the loop and it takes everyone philanthropists private sector government not only in one country but cross regional and cross cross country collaboration there is a lot that can be done but it needs last that last investment and focusing in engaging the community engaging leaders engaging family and making it an agenda not just at a stage like this but a community talking about can we really do this and the community owning it.

Uh that way we can really run the last mile and innovation can help us around it.

And Bill, are you optimistic complete eradication?

No, I'm um uh very committed. Uh we're having to innovate. Uh we're having to strengthen partnerships. Uh you know, we're we have the two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where uh we still haven't gotten to zero, but we have uh great work going on there. And then we have to uh clean up the reinfection that took place in Africa.

But you know, we know how to do this. Uh we have incredible tools and you know, days like today uh should re-energize everyone to uh push all the way to the finish line, you know, which will be an incredible milestone for humanity.

Well, thank you so much to all of you for joining me today. Please join me in thanking our distinguished panelists. Her excellency Dr. Maha Barakat, Assistant Minister for Health and Life Sciences, UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Thank you.

Her Excellency Dr. Magda Daba, Minister of Health Ethiopia. And of course, last but not least, Mr. Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation. Thank you so much to all of you.

Thank you. Thank you so much.