Bill Gates Talks to TIME About a Coming ‘Third Wave’ of Development in Africa

There’s a very big difference between simple and easy—especially when it comes to global health. It’s simple to eradicate polio—just get all children are vaccinated. It’s simple to reduce nighttime malaria infections—make sure everyone in malaria-endemic areas sleeps under a bed net. But none of that is easy. The tension between simple and easy is at play when it comes to eradicating poverty in the developing world too, as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation makes clear in its second annual Goalkeepers Data Report. In a conversation with TIME, Bill Gates points to two recent waves of poverty reduction—first in China and then in India—and discusses what it would take to achieve a third wave in Africa. TIME: Sub-Saharan Africa has been a target for development for a long time, and while progress has certainly been made, it’s often been halting. How optimistic can we be that things will improve now? Bill Gates: Well, Africa has actually improved dramatically already and you can take any time frame. Consider the 1990s to the year 2000, for example. If you look at the level of literacy in Africa, it’s gone up dramatically. The reduction in childhood deaths has improved very dramatically. You have some huge exemplars in countries like Ethiopia, which was one of the poorest and had regular famine, that’s more than doubled their agricultural productivity. It’s always hard for people to see because Africa&rsq...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized onetime public health Source Type: news