Bill and Melinda Gates commit $10bn over 10 years to research and deliver vaccines to developing countries at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty ImagesPosted by Sarah Boseley Tuesday 2 February 2010
Melinda Gates flew from her three-day tour of hospitals and clinics in Malawi and Benin straight to Davos last week, where she and Bill announced a jaw-droppingly huge $10 billion donation to vaccines for poor countries over the next ten years.
This isn't just big-hearted generosity. The pair are extremely careful how they spend their money. Gates immerses himself in the minutiae of the projects they fund. I've seen him in action in South Africa, cross-questioning the scientists, making sure they've thought it all through, including the costs.
But in an economic recession, with aid budgets probably some of the first to shrink, Bill and Melinda Gates are campaigning for more cash for global health, as well as handing it out themselves. $10 billion sounds a lot of money, but it's a small slice of what is needed from wealthy governments. Prospects of cuts in aid are scandalous, said Melinda Gates, speaking to me and a couple of other journalists in Benin.
"It is scandalous. It is absolutely scandalous. I think that's what has to be said to governments - you have to keep up the commitments." Speaking of the money already spent (much of it from Gates) on vaccines by GAVI (the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation), she added: "Without that money the number of people who would be dead in these countries is enormous."
Meanwhile Bill Gates had a go at Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, for splashing out on hair transplants rather than foreign aid."Rich people spend a lot more money on their own problems, like baldness, than they do to fight malaria," Gates told the Suddeutsche Zeitung.
So the gloves are off. Global health has attracted unprecedented investment but now every dollar is going to have to be fought for. It makes it all the more important that the way it is spent is scrutinised too. The Gates Foundation announcement spoke about the forthcoming malaria vaccine from pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. Having a malaria vaccine - even one that only protects half the time - is really good news, but amidst all the back-slapping and champagne cork-popping that will follow if the trials are a success, careful analysis of what children get - and what GSK gets - out of the investment will be of crucial importance in this cash-strapped world.
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