Bill Gates calls for more aid to go to Africa and for debt relief for burdened countries

NEW YORK — The billionaire Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates thinks the richest governments should increase their support for African countries that have been overshadowed by development funding increasingly going toward the humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine as well as support for refugees around the world in recent years. I think we can give global health a second act — even in a world where competing challenges require governments to stretch their budgets.” In April, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development pointed to preliminary data from 2023 that showed overall development assistance from the richest countries had increased each year since 2019 — even excluding funds for refugees, COVID-19 and Ukraine — but the portion that has gone to African countries fell in 2022 to a 20-year low of around 25%. When asked if he saw a role for his foundation to advocate for debt relief, Gates harkened back to a decision in 2005 when world leaders wiped out $40 billion in debts owed by 18 of the world’s poorest countries to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for news coverage of women in the workforce and in statehouses from Melinda French Gates’ organization, Pivotal Ventures.