BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION

Introduction

'Reducing inequities and improving lives around the world' is the goal of one of the biggest philanthropic giants in the world – the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The foundation encompasses public-private partnerships, for-profit and not-for-profit programs, and global policy-making goals primarily aimed at the health sector (Matthews et al., 2008). The year 2000 marked the start of BMGF in Seattle and has captured the attention of policymakers and the general public towards global health. BMGF has come up with many admirable commitments in the health sector, such as maternal and child health, the development of new vaccines and drugs, etc. These commitments are dedicated to saving the lives of young generations by focusing on reducing child mortality and advancing global health by helping to conduct drug trials in low-income countries of Asia and Africa. Many diseases and deaths are preventable if proper vaccination administration takes place globally (Harman, 2016).

Works

The priority areas of BMGF include discovering new insights to fight off serious diseases affecting developing countries, developing effective medicines, vaccines, facilities, and delivering health solutions. The foundation also takes gender inequality seriously and supports women's empowerment, especially in agriculture. It funds gender-responsive agricultural development programs through Global Development Programme. BMGF has defined three gender-responsive projects levels: gender-neutral, gender-aware, and gender transformative projects. The Gender Impact strategy of the foundation consists of projects that include women and relieve poverty. These projects also ensure that it creates income, better understand gender dynamics and evaluates women's empowerment and nutrition. They also protect women from sexual harassment, help in women's employment, and most importantly, listen to the needs and concerns of women (Garcia and Wanner, 2017).

In several years BMGF had procured a global health budget surpassing the World Health Organization (WHO). The main challenges in Global Health Initiative began in 2003 to fund research scientists in different countries aiming for rapid progress in the prevention, cure, and treatment of diseases. It addressed global health issues such as malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, lack of access to medical care, and inadequate resources. Some core purposes of this initiative are to improve childhood vaccines, create new vaccines. Also, control insects that transmit diseases enhance nutrition to promote good health, improve drug treatment of infectious diseases, cure latent and chronic infections, measure health statuses accurately, etc.

Emergency responses during Ebola included investments in research and development, Big Data initiatives, vaccine discovery, and fast-track trials. BMGF's Ebola funding was one of the best goals they have achieved. They also played an essential role in helping scientists to produce diagnostic tools and vaccines against tuberculosis by cooperating with governments, biotechnology industries, and multinational institutions. The foundation addresses new approaches to protecting the infection preventing the progression of its disease, and improving treatment and diagnosis by advocating for more outstanding political commitment and funding. Increased funding and effective interventions by BMGF have also kept track of malaria rates, resulting in a reduced burden of the disease. It is the top priority of the foundation to reach those in need with resources such as effective medicines, rapid diagnosing tests, insecticide-treated bed nets, harnessing data to identify locations of malaria epidemics, supporting researchers to develop vector-based vaccines, and a broad base of support from leaders, influencers and public society.

Conclusion

The BMGF plays a vital role as an advocacy agency promoting global health and development. They are ready to invest in high-risk initiatives. Tools required for the foundation to perform effectively and achieve its missions are provided by the Discovery and Translational Sciences team. Scientific and technological innovations are observed constantly to find space for improvement and harness new cutting-edge technologies. The Grand Challenges involve the brightest minds for solving the most challenging problems and bottlenecks in global health. Rapid decision-making for a wide range of obstacles in public health, especially in developing countries, is the critical scope of BMGF.

References

Garcia and Wanner. (2017). Gender inequality and food security:
Lessons from the gender- responsive work of the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Springer,
9(1562), 1091-1103. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-017-0718-7

Harman. (2016). The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Legitimacy in Global Health Governance.
Global Governance, (2016), 349-368. Retrieved from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44860965

Matthews and Ho. (2008). The grand impact of the Gates Foundation.
Sixty billion dollars and one famous person can affect the spending and research focus of public agencies. PMC,
9(5), 409-412. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2373372/