Climate Aid Must Not Be At the Expense of Health – Gates
Bill and Melinda Gates, Credit: Creative Commons
Today we’ve published Shaun Shi Yan Tan’s report on his elective learning new surgical and interpersonal skills in the Orthopaedics department of the National University Hospital, Singapore. Read about it here.
In today’s blog Suvash Shrestha, TLS Regional Advisor in Nepal, describes the concern expressed in a recent statement by Bill Gates over the new pledges by governments around the world for climate aid.
“If just 1 percent of the $100 billion goal came from vaccine funding, then 700,000 more children could die from preventable diseases” – Bill Gates
A week ago, Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world, expressed his concerns over the source of huge amount of aid the developed countries promised during Copenhagen Global Climate Change Meeting, 2009. He feared the aid might come at the expense of existing aids for other sectors like health.
At the Copenhagen summit last December, the participants had agreed to provide $100 billion per year to developing countries to combat climate change by 2020. Uncertain, where the money would come from, Gates wrote in a letter, “I am concerned that some of this money will come from reducing other categories of foreign aid, especially health.”
The proposed $100 billion aid equals more than three quarters of the total money the richest countries donate in a year at present. The present aid has been helping the poorer countries to improve health, education, ease poverty, and develop rural areas. Any magnitude of cut in the present aid would have serious consequences. “If just 1 percent of the $100 billion goal came from vaccine funding, then 700,000 more children could die from preventable diseases,” Gates added.
The Microsoft Corp co-founder, and also a leading philanthropist, Gates has been running a foundation by the name “The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation” since 1994. With a total endowment worth $34 billion, this foundation has been fighting malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases in developing countries. So far, it has already offered $21 billion in grants.
Gates’ concerns seem very realistic in the present condition, when the world is just reviving from the global economic recession. With the economic crisis still not over, any additional fund is hard to come. “Because of budget deficits, there is significant risk that aid budgets will either be cut or not increase much,” he further added in his letter.
The Microsoft chairman also stressed shifting the focus away from health would do more harm to the environment in the long run. Only when people have quality health, they would focus on preserving environment. They would opt for voluntary family planning and smaller families, which in turn would reduce the strain on the environment.
Gates has remained very committed to his foundation and its activities. His humanitarian feelings were clearly reflected when he criticized Italy for not contributing to the financial aid. “Italy was at the low end of European givers even before the Berlusconi government came in and cut the aid by over half, making them uniquely stingy among European donors,” Gates said.