September 25, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Across town from the Clinton Global Initiative, another group of distinguished people are discussing ways to help the poor — the United Nations General Assembly.
And today, Bill Gates spoke to world leaders and diplomats about the Millennium Development Goals, which seek to cut the number of people living in extreme poverty in half by 2015, among other goals. It was the first time the co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spoken at the international institution. (Read the text of his talk.)
Following short speeches by Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom and Wen JiaBao, the prime minister of China, Mr. Gates said that while it was “unusual” for a philanthropist to give a speech to such a high-level gathering, it was a sign that the United Nations and governments want to work in partnership with private organizations.
While much has been discussed about the failings of the Millennium Development Goals, the Microsoft co-founder said he was “optimistic” about their effectiveness because they have raise antipoverty concerns among world leaders and the general public.
As an example, he mentioned how pleased he and his wife, Melinda, were when one of his daughters had a school assignment to study the development goals.
“Some of the numbers are good, some of the numbers are not, but the fact that the world is focusing on these numbers is excellent,” he said.
Mr. Gates also said he is hopeful because scientific innovation will help fight disease and make other development progress in the near future, pointing out that the creation of the smallpox vaccine helped curbed the number of worldwide child deaths since 1960
Mr. Gates encouraged the world to focus on the positive side of the antipoverty effort, rather than bickering about who is at fault for its slow progress.
“People aren’t motivated by blame,” he said.
Yesterday the Gates foundation used the U.N. forum to announce a new anti-hunger effort, a $66-million grant to the World Food Programme.
