Gates Foundation Sets Ambitious Goals For 2030

The Gates Foundation’s annual letter was released today and, in recognizing the organization’s major successes in its first fifteen years, established lofty expectations for 2030. At the core of the Foundation’s continuing efforts is the following declaration by Bill and Melinda Gates:

“The lives of people in poor countries will improve faster in the next 15 years than at any other time in history. And their lives will improve more than anyone else’s.”

While acknowledging that not every poor country can be expected to make the same huge strides at once, Bill and Melinda argue that conditions have never been better for the overall advancement of impoverished people. Fittingly, the key to this is technological innovation:

“They will have unprecedented opportunities to get an education, eat nutritious food, and benefit from mobile banking. These breakthroughs will be driven by innovation in technology — ranging from new vaccines and hardier crops to much cheaper smartphones and tablets — and by innovations that help deliver those things to more people.”

Check out the full letter (linked below) to go in-depth with the Gates action plan. It includes details on efforts related to health, farming, banking, education, and the levels of global solidarity necessary to advance the lives of people living in poor countries. There’s also an interesting digression about the long-term challenges posed by climate change and how the Foundation intends to prepare for it.