The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation set its largest budget ever, at $8.6 billion, for 2024.
The foundation’s board agreed on the budget on Saturday, and announced it Monday.
“The budget, which represents an increase of 4% over last year and is a $2 billion increase over the 2021 budget, comes as global contributions to health in the lowest-income countries are stalling,” the budget announcement read. It cited debt and other pressures depleting healthcare spending in sub-Saharan Africa and a dropoff in foreign aid, despite the growing needs of people in those countries.
“We can’t talk about the future of humanity without talking about the future of health,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation, in the announcement. “Every day, newborn babies and young children die simply because of where they were born… It’s unacceptable, particularly because we have already developed many of the solutions that could save their lives.”
The foundation further committed to increasing its budget to $9 billion by 2026.
Also stated in the announcement, at this year’s World Economic Forum meeting – which begins on Monday in Davos, Switzerland – Gates Foundation executives will carry backpacks to showcase an array of simple and portable healthcare products that could save millions of lives. Among these products are a one-dose HPV vaccine, vaccine microneedle patches, and an ultrasound tool that uses AI to identify obstetric risk in pregnancies.
Founded in 2000 by Gates and his then-wife Melinda, who still co-runs it with him, the Gates Foundation creates programs to address “the world’s greatest inequalities.” One of its focuses is combatting major causes of child mortality in low-income countries.
